Guenther Steiner Explains Why McLaren Was Able to Mark a Steady Upward Trajectory to Become the Fastest Team

McLaren has made a remarkable turnaround, from being one of F1’s slowest teams at the start of 2023 to becoming arguably the fastest this year. Former Haas boss Guenther Steiner spoke about the Woking-based team’s resurgence and shared his thoughts on how they could have done it.

Steiner appeared on the RacingNews365 podcast, where he was asked if McLaren surprised him. He replied by talking about the timeline of the team’s development.

The Italian-American recalled how McLaren never stopped believing and had a plan set in motion. A lot of it had to do with the British stable’s understanding of the regulations. Steiner said,

“I think they’ve got actually a good understanding what it is needed to make this latest regulation car work well because it’s so difficult to understand. But when you understand that you can work at it and get the development right.”

I’m actually so proud of McLaren like this progress is insane pic.twitter.com/w23lQCsNBf

— ᯓ zeeᵕ̈ ★⁸¹⁺⁴ || osc win + mha era (@iheartlandoscar) June 9, 2024

McLaren’s transformation has been on par with Aston Martin’s early 2023 progress when the Silverstone-based team became a regular face on the podium. But in 2024, they faltered, whereas McLaren took a huge step forward.

McLaren is meeting its development targets and the upgrades have been on point so far. The season did not get off to a strong start, but the team has since recovered. This has allowed McLaren to challenge for the Constructors’ title for the first time in over a decade.

Tough times behind McLaren

McLaren last won the Constructors’ Title in 1998. They came close in 2007 and would have won the championship, had it not been for the ‘Spygate‘ incident, which docked them off all their points.

The team also struggled financially in the following years, with sponsorship deals going dry. But when Zak Brown became CEO of McLaren in 2018, things started to change. Because of his experience in sales and marketing, Brown was able to secure a plethora of sponsors and hired multiple top engineers, who slowly made the team better.

After being on the periphery of the podium places for the last three years, McLaren has now started winning races. In the Constructors’ Championship, they are just 42 points behind top-placed Red Bull. With 10 races to go, it is a gap that can easily be bridged.