From being one of the slowest teams at the start of 2023 to being arguably the fastest, McLaren has come a long way. Oscar Piastri looks back on the progress made by the Woking-based outfit and hails the people who made this remarkable turnaround possible.
Piastri hailed CEO Zak Brown and Team Principal Andrea Stella, in his interview with Sky Sports. He then talks about the personnel changes at McLaren, and how despite those being significant, the majority of the credit goes to the people who worked on the 2023 car.
“A lot of the performance and turnaround began with exactly the same people that built the car at the start of last year… We managed to get the best out of everybody.”, the Aussie said.
“We managed to get the best out of everybody”
Oscar on McLaren’s fight for the championship pic.twitter.com/t5jJ2tvvBy
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 2, 2024
Piastri joined McLaren in 2023 at a time when many were doubting the team’s progress. But he and Lando Norris believed in the British team, and this season, both have emerged as race winners.
McLaren started 2024 as the third-fastest behind Red Bull and Ferrari. But similar to 2023, they made progress with upgrades, and are the fastest team on the grid currently. Plus, their development boost has also put them in a good position to dethrone Red Bull in the Championship.
McLaren to break Red Bull’s dominance?
Red Bull is now just 42 points ahead of McLaren in the standings, and theoretically, the Woking-based stable can overtake Red Bull in Zandvoort when the summer break ends. Of course for that, both Red Bull cars have to end the race with zero points in addition to McLaren scoring a 1-2.
Red Bull won both the 2022 and 2023 constructors’ titles; both comfortably but their dominance looks to be under threat. With 10 races to go, McLaren is the favorite to win the constructors’ title.
Unless the Milton-Keynes outfit makes major strides with upgrades in these remaining Grands Prix, McLaren could emerge victorious come the end of the season.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen too, will be looking to make it four World Championships in a row, provided he has a better car. So far, he hasn’t won in the last four races, a dismal record for a driver who won 19 out of 22 races in 2023.
