What McLaren must learn from 2024 to ensure the two championships in 2025

Red Bull was a formidable team in 2024, but a late wave of McLaren threatened to overthrow the team and snatch the two titles in front of his noses. But just when a real challenge by McLaren materialized, cracks began to form, and could only take the crown of builders last season. Now, with a dominant car and two pilots at the top of their career, do you run the risk of failing?

The first six races of the season in 2024 and 2025 could not be more different for papaya. Last year, McLaren struggled to be in the top five until an update for the Miami Grand Prix transformed his fate and helped Lando Norris get his first victory in F1. This year, the team has won all the great prizes except one thanks to the domain of its MCL39.

This does not mean that the team has guaranteed the crown, since in the F1 the teams are only measured by the success of their last race, and rivals such as Mercedes and Red Bull will surely begin to cut distances as the updates arrive.

And once you begin to face a stronger and consistent competition for the victories in the race, McLaren cannot let the 2024 cracks say again on their weekends in large awards.

Those cracks in the McLaren armor materialized in some key moments during the 2024 season, which affected their chances of winning both titles. Track problems, such as wrong strategic decisions and stops in slow boxes, were expensive, and errors by their pilots appeared as a race in race.

In Canada, Norris was able to win his second career, but the slowness in the change of intermediate tires to Slicks cost a vital position on the track. In the end, the British was second and lost seven vital points for the championship.

A few weeks later, in Silverstone, Norris blamed a handful of erroneous decisions during the Grand Prix for his third place, which means he lost another 10 points.

Then the Hungary Grand Prix arrived. The internal fights in McLaren were broadcast on the radio of the team, while Norris argued with his engineer, Will Joseph, about advancing Oscar Piastri to get his second victory in F1. The British was told that “the way to win a championship is not for oneself, it is with the team”, and subsequently maintained the line and allowed Pastri to get his first victory in F1.

If McLaren had overturned with Norris from that moment, or if the British had chosen to ignore the request of his team, he would have approached an amazing Max Verstappen at the top of the pilot championship.

In 2025, McLaren is not the hunter and instead has a dominant advantage at the head of the builders classification. Piastri is also 16 points ahead of Norris in the pilot classification, which in turn has 16 points ahead of Verstappen, third.

However, the advantage does not guarantee that McLaren gets the two crowns, and there will come a time when the Papaya team has to support one of its pilots if it finally wants to complete the double, the first for the team since 1998. At the moment, the team is still refusing to do so.

“I always say they are free to run,” said McLaren’s executive director, Zak Brown, after the 2025 Miami Grand [correr]but it seems good to me. “

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

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The team director, Andrea Stella, echoed these comments when he warned that an “interesting situation” was coming for the team while Norris chased Pastri in the last bars of the Miami GP. In the end, Norris was still four seconds when the checkered flag fell, but Stella warned that a more closed battle surely “will arrive in the next races.”

The team leader is another opponent of the introduction of team orders in McLaren, having previously warned that it could have “destroyed” future opportunities if McLaren had ordered Piastri to help his partner to maximize the points in 2024.

But could there be no equally disastrous results for the team in its struggle for the two world titles?

“We are trying to repeat about 2007,” Piastri joked after the Miami GP, when asked about the possibility of a fierce battle between teams as the season progresses. “We clearly know that we have our strengths and has always been very close to us.

“So it will be a good battle, there will be weekends in which Lando is stronger, there will be weekends in which I am stronger, so it will be a good battle.”

Whatever the battle that arises as the races advance (2025), it cannot occur at the expense of the McLaren position at the head of both championships. Norris and Piastri fighting in the lead could pave the way for a Verstappen attack, which follows them closely, or even a Mercedes who is improving.

And, if the worst happens and the couple would come together, a loss of two -digit points in McLaren would make a difference in their possibilities to get the crown of builders.

It is always a delicate issue for racing fans, but surely McLaren will have to put their pilots online or later.

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