Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco, McLaren chief engineer Tom Stallard, winning McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia and Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain stand on the podium after the Formula One Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP/Sergey Glitz)
McLaren Racing goes into the Singapore Grand Prix as Formula One’s new favorite team, the papaya-addled team that could finally dethrone Red Bull and Max Verstappen.
Red Bull and its Dutch driver have had a firm grip on both the drivers’ championship and the more lucrative constructors’ title, the best car title, since Verstappen won his first title in 2021. Verstappen has now won his third consecutive title and leads the drivers’ standings. Red Bull has won the constructors’ title for the second consecutive year but is no longer top of the standings going into the weekend.
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McLaren took top spot last Sunday with Oscar Piastri’s victory.
Read: F1: Oscar Piastri defends McLaren’s bent rear wing
Combined with Lando Norris’ fourth-place finish, McLaren took the constructors’ championship lead for the first time since 2014. McLaren last won the constructors’ championship in 1998.
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McLaren starts the Singapore weekend with a 20-point lead over Red Bull, which has led the car manufacturer competition since 2022. The race takes place on Sunday.
“I think we have as good a chance as anyone,” McLaren chief executive Zak Brown boldly declared at the IndyCar season finale last Sunday.
British McLaren driver Lando Norris drives his car during the Formula One Italian Grand Prix race at Monza Race Track in Monza, Italy, Sunday, September 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
He had watched Piastri’s victory and McLaren’s rise to the top in Nashville, Tennessee, but despite the loudmouth American on the other side of the world, McLaren managed to steal the show at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
McLaren arrived in Baku to admit that they prioritised Norris and the drivers’ championship over Piastri for the remaining eight races of the season – with Norris 59 points behind Verstappen ahead of Singapore – and Piastri naturally accepted the team’s instructions by winning the race.
Read: F1: Max Verstappen vows to fight back for Red Bull
“Obviously he doesn’t like it because no racing driver wants to sacrifice their own race, but he’s a great team player and he completely understands and knows that the roles could be reversed in the future,” Brown said of Piastri being given the wingman role for the rest of the season.
“Also, it’s possible – and it’s not impossible – that things could turn around later in the year, and if Lando goes and retires a couple of times, and Oscar goes and wins a couple of times, then all of a sudden it happens,” Brown shrugged. “So I think Piastri is aware of what goes around comes around, and it could be to his great advantage.”
Norris and Piastri have won two of McLaren’s three F1 races together, while Verstappen has not won since the Spanish Grand Prix on June 23. The team has said it wants Norris to take Verstappen’s place but Brawn knows that will be difficult to achieve unless Norris starts to take a significant lead over Verstappen every race.
READ: F1: McLaren to prioritise Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri
Last Sunday in Baku, Verstappen finished fifth, one place behind Norris, who finished just three points behind the champion.
“Lando has scored some points but to catch him I need to double the points I scored in every race (in Baku),” Brown said. “It will be difficult but we’re going to try.”
But to be clear, McLaren is very keen to win the constructors’ title, which comes with a huge prize pool – the amount for the winner varies from year to year, but is usually at least $140 million.
Red Bull’s decline has been so dramatic that Brawn does not even consider the team a major rival for best constructor this year.
“I think Ferrari have shown they have the speed, so I think Ferrari might be more of a threat than Red Bull at the moment because I think Ferrari are really strong in Singapore,” Brawn said.
Red Bull, with Verstappen and Sergio Perez, have won 38 races in 2022 and 2023. Verstappen has seven wins in 17 races this season, while Perez is winless.
Brown praised his development under McLaren team boss Andrea Stella, praising him as a “fantastic team boss”.
“Andrea and the management have been able to unlock the potential and the talent,” Brown said of the young team’s turnaround. McLaren is one of the most popular racing brands in the world and Brown is trying to lead the team back into F1’s top tier after a long drought.
McLaren improves IndyCar program
Mexican McLaren IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward is greeted by fans before the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, October 23, 2022. (Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP)
It’s been a sometimes rocky road since Brown was appointed CEO of McLaren in 2018. He is, after all, an American who loves to stir things up as much as he loves to talk about his racing career. Some of Brown’s moves have been turbulent, especially after he successfully landed Piastri and thought he had secured IndyCar champion Alex Palou for 2022.
Palou changed his mind last year and decided to stay with Chip Ganassi Racing in IndyCar after being told by intermediaries he could not join McLaren until 2024. He did not want to move to McLaren’s less competitive IndyCar team in the hope that a seat for either Norris or Piastri would open up in F1.
Palou won his third IndyCar title in Nashville and is due to face another arbitrator later this year in a $30 million breach of contract lawsuit brought by McLaren against the Spanish driver.
The carousel of driver contracts has become comical even among die-hard McLaren fans, but this year was a mess even before the season began: David Marcus, who Brawn hired at the last minute to take Palou’s seat, broke his wrist in a cycling accident a month before the IndyCar season began, and the team has used three drivers in the car this year.
Marcus was not one of them, as McLaren had a clause in his contract that would have seen them fire him if he missed four consecutive races. The turmoil over that seat has hurt the team and left Pato O’Ward without a stable car to fight for the championship. Brawn is revamping its driver line-up again for 2025, meaning O’Ward will have two new teammates next year.
It’s taken a long time to get McLaren back into F1, but Brawn is pleased with the pace the team is on heading into Singapore because it’s a stark contrast to the dismal and uncompetitive 2023 season.
Brown also hopes the IndyCar team will now come out on top.
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“I want to bring the IndyCar team up to the same level as the F1 teams,” Brown said. “I think we’re still a young team, and we’ll continue to hire in the offseason and make changes… I feel like the IndyCar team is on the same trajectory as the F1 teams, but the F1 teams are a little bit further along at this point.”
