FORMULA 1
A year of revolution at McLaren
The British team heads into Silverstone, where it established the foundations for a positive end to last year and a good start to the current season.
McLaren is undoubtedly one of the teams that is performing best in the current championship. It sits third in the constructors’ championship with both of its two drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, well placed in the general drivers’ classification, second and sixth respectively.
Without a doubt, it’s a team that is in constant evolution and for whom the results are looking favorable: eight podiums for the Woking-based team, six podiums for the British and two for the Australian, with Lando’s victory in Miami - the first of his career, one of the highlights.
Things starting to look up for McLaren
But the panorama was very different exactly a year ago, at the end of the Austrian Grand Prix. McLaren was sixth in constructors with 29 points - 18 points behind the fifth team (Alpine) and 125 points adrift of the team in fourth, Ferrari. And achievements for the two Woking drivers were few and far between: Norris’ best result was fourth in Austria and Piastri, in his first season, could not surpass eighth position which he achieved in the Australian GP, the third race of the season.
The turning point came at the circuit where they race this weekend - Silverstone. It was there where the papaya orange team surprised in the classification, logging second and third position, the best results throughout the whole of 2023.
The race also started in an unusual way, with Norris leading the early laps. That didn’t last too long however, as Verstappen’s dominance came to the fore. In the end, Norris finished second and Piastri achieved his best result in his short career finishing in fourth position.
And since then, everything at McLaren has been joyful. Lando achieved eight more podiums in 2023, taking into account the two sprints in Qatar and São Paulo, while Oscar achieved three podiums, including a victory in the sprint race in Qatar. This weekend they return to where it all began with the intention of achieving the second victory of the year and also a double podium, something that those from Woking have not done since Qatar.