As McLaren put the all-new MCL39 through its paces at Silverstone, both Zak Brown and Andrea Seidl have warned that the team face a challenging season ahead in the wake of expected progress from their rivals.

Last season the team managed to secure one, winning a first Constructors’ title since 1998.

McLaren aim to ‘bring both championships’ back to Woking

McLaren were the standout winners in the F1 2024 development war as they rebounded from being 48 seconds down on race winner Max Verstappen at the season-opening Grand Prix in Bahrain to having the fastest car on the grid for much of the season after their initial Miami Grand Prix upgrade.

Having then made the call to hold back on bringing a new floor to the car, instead upgrading other areas of the car, McLaren avoided the correlation issues that befell rival teams, including Red Bull, and surged ahead at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

They went on to win the teams’ title by 14 points ahead of Ferrari with Red Bull 77 off the pace. The Milton Keynes squad did, however, retain the Drivers’ Championship with Lando Norris conceding his early-season deficit, coupled with one too many mistakes, meant he wasn’t able to take Max Verstappen to the line.

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Brown has laid down the gauntlet for F1 2025, saying McLaren will do everything they can to ensure they don’t miss out on the double for the second year running.

McLaren became the first Formula 1 team to show off their 2025 car when they put the MCL39 through its pace at the Silverstone circuit in a surprise unveiling.

“Today is a big milestone in our journey in the fight for the 2025 title,” Brown said. “It’s great to get our Championship challenger, the MCL39, on track for the first time and to launch the culmination of the team’s hard work.

“We must be realistic that every team will have made progress over the winter. Last year highlighted just how much the grid has closed up, which is a brilliant thing for the sport.

“We believe we have made further steps forward since the championship-winning MCL38 but we won’t know where we sit in the standings until we get into qualifying in Australia.

“We’re a team that never stops racing and we’ll be giving it our all to bring both championships back to Woking.”

The McLaren MCL39 was decked out in a bespoke camo livery as the official 2025 colours will only be revealed on February 18 at a special event in London where all 10 teams will present their liveries in a group launch to mark F1’s 75th anniversary.

But McLaren team principal Andrea Seidl, who led the Woking outfit to their first championship since Lewis Hamilton’s Drivers’ title success in 2008, also warned that McLaren can expect a “challenging” year ahead.

After last season where four teams won Grands Prix; McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, this year expectations are that all four could also fight for both titles.

“We are excited to see the MCL39 hit the track for the first time at Silverstone today,” said Seidl.

“Whilst we finished last year as champions, 2024 highlighted how highly competitive the grid is, which is something that will carry through to this year’s Championship.

“We therefore must keep focused to compete at the front in this tight field. It’s going to be an exciting but incredibly challenging year ahead.

“The team have worked extremely hard to prepare as best as possible for the start of the season. We learned a lot from our battles last year, so we take this and use it to push our goal for the year.”

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