2024 Constructors’ champions McLaren have become the first team to officially unveil their 2025 challenger. Despite the F1 75 livery launch event scheduled for the 18th of February, the team debuted the MCL39 — in a camo livery — at Silverstone earlier on February 13.
Going into the 2025 season, the Woking-based team are expected to be one of the frontrunners, and Oscar Piastri has revealed that his team have made some changes to protect their advantage over the rest of the field. Whilst speaking to Sky Sports F1’s Craig Slater, Piastri revealed,
“We’ve not stood still. There’s some things that are different, some new innovations on this car”.
Is that the MCL39 we see? ️ pic.twitter.com/b10Fblf8VF
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) February 13, 2025
Piastri is aware that it is important for the team to keep improving. Last year, many teams made a big jump in performance, and staying stagnant could end McLaren’s dominance at the front.
“I think that’s what you need to do to try and stay at the top. We’ve seen in the past that when it’s not been us winning, other teams have been constantly putting new things on their car,” he explained.
In fact, Ferrari — who looked liked the closest competitor to McLaren towards the end of last season — have already revealed that the SF-25 is going to be a radically different concept to their previous iterations in the ground effects era.
2025 sets up for two-way title fight between McLaren and Ferrari
Given just how small the margins are in terms of performance, the title fight between McLaren and Ferrari could just end up being one about the drivers rather than the car. Last season, the Scuderia narrowly missed out on the Constructors’ title by 14 points but have a revamped lineup for 2025.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has been brought into the Ferrari fold to bolster their title chances. But at the end of the day, it would appear that consistency will be key to winning in 2025.
Hamilton will need some time to get used to the operations of the team and the SF-25. On the other hand, Norris and Piastri seemed to be dialed in from the get-go.
