Liam Lawson has been fuming from the sidelines each time McLaren won a race in 2024. No, he has nothing against Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri. It has got to do with how he finds the team’s identity to be the exact opposite of what the team’s founder, a New Zealander, would have envisaged it to be.
The original owner of the Woking-based outfit, Bruce McLaren, established the team, drove in the championship, and made it a big name in F1. He operated out of the United Kingdom though, giving McLaren — as a company — a British identity.
So, when Norris or Piastri celebrate on the podium, ‘God save the King’ plays on the loudspeakers. “That’s bullsh*t,” Lawson exclaimed.
“Makes no sense, you know. It’s a New Zealand team. The name is still McLaren…It is what it is, like honestly, especially if you are from New Zealand… Bruce McLaren is an absolute legend,” the RB driver said on the Red Flags podcast.
When the hosts asked him if it felt like a ‘slap in the face’, he agreed.
McLaren has won five times in 2024. And Lawson was forced to hear the ‘incorrect’ anthem play on each of those occasions. However, is the 22-year-old’s angst justified?
Is Lawson’s anger justified?
Bruce was from New Zealand, yes, but the company McLaren was always British. It made its F1 debut 1966.
After Bruce died during a test drive in 1970, British motorsport mogul Ron Dennis bought it as a part of his ‘Project Four Racing’.
Since then, McLaren has been fully British-owned, with Dennis taking the team to new heights of success. Legendary drivers like Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, and Ayrton Senna drove for them, scoring many iconic victories. McLaren also started building sports and luxury cars in the UK.
Our first F1 victory.
On this day in 1968, Bruce McLaren won the Belgian Grand Prix to take the team’s first win in @F1! pic.twitter.com/lyup5SCctP
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) June 9, 2024
In his outspoken interview, Lawson argued citing Red Bull as an example. While the team is headquartered in Milton Keynes, in the United Kingdom, they still play the Austrian national anthem to celebrate victories. This is in honor of the Austrian parent company, Red Bull GmbH.
The fact is, and Lawson should know it was well, that nothing will change at McLaren. The team has no direct ties to New Zealand at present.
