McLaren had a crucial decision to make over the winter break while developing their final car for this set of Formula 1 regulations.
After winning last year’s constructors’ championship, McLaren had to work out whether to stick with the line of development that saw them shoot to the front of the grid, or try and revolutionise and take an even bigger step forward compared to their rivals.
McLaren have unveiled a bold design for their 2025 car and now have three long days of testing to confirm whether they’ve made the right choice or if they need to go back to the drawing board.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are sharing driving duties every day, unlike Williams and Red Bull who have given their drivers a full day of running each.
Norris topped the timing sheets on day one in Bahrain, although very little can be drawn from any driver’s lap times.
For example, the Haas drivers were well off the pace compared to the rest of the grid but were concentrating on their heavy fuel long runs rather than any sort of qualifying simulation.
Ted Kravitz has been stationed in the pit lane during testing and keeping a close eye on every car as they leave their garages to take to the track.
Speaking on Ted’s Notebook, he spotted something very unusual on Piastri’s McLaren as it was being disassembled by McLaren’s mechanics.
Ted Kravitz spots McLaren part he’s ‘never seen’ before during pre-season testing
Kravitz was analysing the new McLaren in the pit lane and explained: “This McLaren looks a very, very tidy package I’ve got to say.
“While we have a look at all the of the teams and I’ll talk about them in a second, McLaren, it’s a sensible car, it’s an aggressive car and this looks more of an aggressive version of last year’s car.
“It looks like they’ve made progress and it looks like they’re making what was the best car certainly in terms of the constructors’ championship before, even better.
“They’ve been working on slow-speed corners, high-speed corners, they’ve been working on making the car a little quicker in DRS as well which is something they’ve focused on.
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“As far as the front of the car, it doesn’t actually look dramatically different, but the rear is nicely packaged and certainly Oscar Piastri as he’s getting out of the car now, he’s handing over to Lando Norris has looked happy enough.
“So, from the front of it, while other teams are doing different things on their design, I think McLaren are looking…oh that’s an interesting heat shield! A gold heat shield on the front bulkhead, I’ve never seen that before!
“Wow, you’ve got to keep something cool in there.
“McLaren look like they’re making what was the best package, certainly won the last race in Abu Dhabi towards the end of 2024, made it even better.”
Jolyon Palmer lauds McLaren for ‘stable’ driver line-up heading into 2025
Although the piece of the car Kravitz spotted is unlikely to deliver much – if any – performance, even if using a different material saves a few grams, that could make all the difference with the grid predicted to converge ever further in 2025.
George Russell revealed that Norris is confident after driving this year’s McLaren, however, the proof will be in how fast they are in competitive running.
Commentating on the second day of testing, Jolyon Palmer talked about McLaren and explained why sticking with Norris and Piastri could be so beneficial this season.
He said: “I do think McLaren having a stable driver line-up is very useful for them.
“They just seem so young and going for a title last year and I know they won the constructors, they kind of made a hard job of it in the end, given the pace of their car and the speed of the drivers through the season and it came down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.
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“And I think for not only the team but having those two drivers Norris, Piastri, both starting from a good position this year, not trying to play catch up as they did last year, with the learnings that both the team and drivers had last year.
“I think for those guys certainly is a big benefit having stable structure, no different race engineers, the team will work the same.
“They’ve got off to a good start, I see a lot of benefits in the consistency in McLaren.”
Zak Brown and Andrea Stella will be desperate for that continuity to be the difference for McLaren as they seek their first drivers’ championship since Lewis Hamilton’s dramatic victory in 2008.
