McLaren has been one of the fastest teams in the 2024 season, and in the last two outings in Canada and Spain, they arguably had the best pace. Still, the Woking-based outfit has recorded just one win so far, thanks to Lando Norris‘ P1 finish in Miami. Keeping this in mind, ex-McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley feels that Norris and Co. have to be as efficient as Red Bull during races to get victories under their belt.
In the latest video on his YouTube channel, Priestley said,
“Now if we’re going to, as I said, get into a championship battle that’s so close, McLaren needs to get into that phase, they need to get into that scenario where they’re the ones not making any mistakes.”
Priestley specifically highlighted McLaren’s strategy error in Montreal, which saw Norris’ lead slip into the hands of Max Verstappen. Norris was in front of the pack, but the team’s decision to not pit him at the right time dropped the Bristol-born driver down. The best he could muster thereafter was a P2 finish.
Priestley understands that a lack of race-winning experience does this to a team. At the same time, with practice, these small errors which could lead to big consequences, will go away. For that, they will have to capitalize on every mistake the ones ahead of them make.
The former McLaren employee is confident of the papaya army’s chances in the future. He has spoken to people working in Woking and is sure that they will win races more consistently, and compete for Championships in the future.
How McLaren needs to improve in all areas to beat Red Bull consistently
Over the last few years, Red Bull has developed into a well-oiled machine competing in the highest level of motorsport. Fast and flawless pitstops, strategy calls, and output have made them overcome the pace deficit in the last two races. Verstappen’s brilliance has also played a major role in this and Priestley feels that McLaren needs to get on the same level.
Priestley echoes what Verstappen said after winning the Spanish GP – Red Bull doesn’t make as many mistakes as the others.
“Red Bull consistently have shown they can do that and they’re able to do that because they’ve done it over and over and over again, they’ve built a stack of evidence behind them to show themselves that they can do it, that they should believe in their data and they should trust in their people.”
Trust and confidence within the team will grow as they keep producing results. Once wins and podiums become more regular, the British team will start taking more risks. Some of them will pay off and translate into wins, which is exactly how they will start building a team that can compete for the World Championship.
