How McLaren Ended A 26-Year Wait For A Formula 1 World Title

Lando Norris may have missed out on the world title, but as far as his team was concerned he delivered when it mattered.

The Briton finished first in the season finale in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, helping McLaren clinch a first constructors’ championship in 26 years.

“It’s been a lovely journey,” Norris said.

“To end the season like this is perfect.

“It feels wrong to say that McLaren have not won a championship in 26 years.”

“Wrong” was arguably the perfect way to describe McLaren’s title drought.

After all, the team is Formula 1’s second-oldest active team and the second-most successful in terms of race wins, in both cases behind Ferrari.

And yet, the last time McLaren won the title in 1998, Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri weren’t even born and Mika Hakkinen claimed the first of his two successive world titles.

If it feels like another era, it’s because it was. In 1998, the Formula 1 season unfolded over 16 races, just five of which were held outside Europe.

North America’s only date on the calendar was the Canadian Grand Prix and McLaren raced in an all-silver livery, as opposed to its traditional papaya colours.

There was little to suggest McLaren could come so far when Norris made his Formula 1 debut with the team in 2019.

By then, the Papaya was seven years removed from its last race wins and 11 years from its last world drivers’ title – won by Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

In the sixth seasons before Norris’ arrival, McLaren never finished higher than fifth in the constructors’ standings and slumped to as low as ninth in 2015 and 2017.

How Zak Brown and Andrea Stella changed McLaren

But the seeds of a new McLaren were being sown.

In 2015, Andrea Stella joined as head of race operation, with Zak Brown coming on board as executive director a year later.

Stella, who served as race engineer to Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso at Ferrari, was promoted to team principal in December 2022.

Brown, meanwhile, was made CEO in 2018. Two years later, he secured a financial investment that effectively secured the team’s future from a very difficult situation.

“We were in a situation where we knew if we didn’t have a cash injection, we would have been at risk of starting the [next] year,” he told BBC Sport.

Brown and Stella deserve immense credit for McLaren’s renaissance.

“We have gone all the way thanks to great resilience, thanks to great belief,” the Italian said.

“That’s what we have gone through in 10 years at McLaren, but hopefully it is not an end point, it is just a starting point for more to come in the future.”

It was not plain sailing.

McLaren finished fourth twice and third once in the constructors’ standings during Norris’ first three seasons, as Daniel Ricciardo memorably ended the team’s wait for a victory when he triumphed in the Italian Grand Prix in 2021.

But the progress stalled and McLaren began last season at the back of the field, before a car upgrade in the middle of 2023 turned them from also-rans into title contenders.

Norris finished on the podium seven times last year, while in his debut season Piastri clinched two podium finishes, enough to earn McLaren fourth place in the standings.

A quiet start to the 2024 season saw Norris finish on the podiums twice in the opening five races, but with Red Bull triumphing in four of those events there was little to suggest McLaren could challenge its stranglehold.

That perception started to shift as Norris secured his maiden Formula 1 win in Miami in May in Round 6, which still left McLaren 115 points behind Red Bull in the standings.

But Red Bull’s advantage completely disappeared over a difficult summer, which saw the RB20 struggle for grip on most tracks, while the upgrades unveiled by McLaren and Ferrari paid off in spectacular fashion.

While Norris and Piastri scored points regularly, Red Bull’s defense of its title was hampered by Sergio Perez’s disastrous form, with the Mexican’s last podium coming in the sprint race in Miami.

Piastri’s win in Azerbaijan in Round 17 saw McLaren take the lead of the constructors’ championship for the first time all season and it never looked back.

Lando Norris delivers in Abu Dhabi

The Papaya arrived in the season finale in Abu Dhabi leading Ferrari, itself looking for a first constructors’ title since 2008, by 21 points.

Norris and Piastri secured a front-row lockout at Yas Marina ahead of Carlos Sainz, with the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc starting 19th on the grid.

What seemed a straightforward task soon turned far more complicated than expected, as Piastri was taken out at the first corner by Max Verstappen and Leclerc worked his way up to finish third behind Sainz.

But Norris held out for a win and with it the constructors’ title.

“If I just kept my head down and kept focused, I knew I could deliver and do what I got to do,” the Briton said.

Deliver he did and so did McLaren, who is back at the top of the constructors’ standings for the first time in a quarter of a century.