The Mercedes F1 team recently suffered a huge blow as their $60 billion sponsor, Monster Energy, decided to form a new partnership with McLaren from the 2024 season onwards. While speaking on the latest episode of The VF1 Show with VF & Vincenzo, McLaren is Building a Monster, the presenters explain how Mercedes F1’s working environment was a reason for the American energy drink manufacturer to jump ship to the Woking-based outfit. Vanessa believes that even though the Mercedes engineers knew that their concept was not up to the point, they yet decided to not change course. On the other hand, McLaren decided to make drastic changes to their car and they were handsomely rewarded with better results. It is this “ego” that Mercedes engineers had that resulted in Monster Energy moving to McLaren, as per Vanessa.
“They (McLaren) built something last year, whereas Mercedes were just committed to these ideas that weren’t working,” revealed Vanessa. She then added, “When you see what McLaren built last year, and they continued to improve, they were like this isn’t working, let us throw it all out. That requires a lot of people putting their egos aside“.
Vanessa then concluded by stating that the simple reason why Monster Energy decided to move to McLaren is because everyone in Woking have put their egos aside and are putting the team first. However, when it comes to Mercedes, she believes that the team continued to stick to their concept even though there were clear signs that they got it wrong.
The Silver Arrows did indeed make a huge mistake with their concept of the W14. After the 2022 season, the team decided to stick to the zero side-pod concept that helped them win a race at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix.
| As of January 2024, McLaren leads the field with a total of 45, closely followed by Red Bull with 39.
[via: @decalspotters] pic.twitter.com/huxhCfhPAT
— McLaren F1 News (@FormulaShambles) January 17, 2024
While there was undoubtedly good reason for them to stick to the concept at the start of the 2023 season, the blunder they made was that they changed course way too late. Despite Lewis Hamilton’s repeated complaints from the very start of the season, Mercedes only accepted that they had chosen the wrong approach for the W14 in late May.
Can McLaren now challenge Red Bull in 2024?
On the same podcast, Vanessa explained how McLaren no longer have the ambition of just challenging Mercedes or Ferrari. Instead, they are keen on challenging Red Bull for the title in 2024.
The Woking-based outfit definitely lay down a marker in 2023 as they showcased the most improvement as the season progressed. After fighting just to score a few points at the start of the season, the team were suddenly fighting for podiums by the second half of the campaign.
The team registered nine podiums last year, with Lando Norris registering seven of them. The only thing that the team missed last season was a win. Norris and Co will now hope that they can not only register their first win in three years but perhaps also challenge Red Bull for the championship in 2024.
While Red Bull definitely seem to be in a league of their own at the moment, considering how McLaren improved over the course of the 2023 season, they seem like the only side that can perhaps pose the Milton Keynes-based outfit a threat in 2024.
