How McLaren won the Formula 1 championship

Here’s my list of five moments that defined the season for McLaren.

After a slow start to the season, it was Miami where we first got to see McLaren’s might. The teams are allowed to, within reason, upgrade their cars as much as they like throughout the season as they find different ways of beating their rivals.

An improved front wing, floor and side air ducts were added that dramatically improved downforce, which helped the car stick to the ground through corners. I was sitting in a student bar and you could hear the crowd for miles as Lando Norris took his first victory and the first for McLaren since 2021.

They’d been consistently third in the season until then. After a third-fourth finish in Australia, and a second for Norris in China, this was a defining victory for the British team and showed they were back in business. While Ferrari were still technically faster over a race distance, it set up stiff competition that would last until the very last race.

Ferrari had kept Red Bull honest all season and had taken two wins, one in Australia and the other being a fairytale home victory for Charles Leclerc in Monaco. They went into Canada ready to dominate, but it was all for nothing.

In qualifying on Saturday, both Ferraris had failed to reach Q3 – the final top ten shoot-out to set the grid for the race. Both drivers had complained of a lack of grip here, with Leclerc saying, “We’re simply not at the level we need to be." 

The rain-soaked race was even more disastrous as both cars failed to reach the finish. Leclerc had engine troubles and Carlos Sainz crashed while overtaking another car. It was not a good day to be wearing red, but McLaren and Andrea Stella, team principal, gained valuable points that afternoon.

With a second and fifth place, McLaren may have grabbed enough points from Ferrari that day to overturn the championship in the final race of the season.

The race after, in Barcelona, was also one to forget for Ferrari as their upgrade did not work out as it should have – hindering performance for the next few races as the team tried to figure out what was wrong.

With points slowly slipping from Red Bull before Hungary, McLaren knew they could push ahead, and they seriously did that weekend in Budapest.

While current champion and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen had been on top of his game, his Mexican teammate, Sergio Perez, was not pushing his weight. He had not been quick enough to match Verstappen and the team were already thinking of pulling him out of the seat halfway through the season, something you rarely see a team do. 

McLaren knew that considering dropping Perez meant Red Bull were starting to get worried.

A dominant 1-2 finish for the Papaya-coloured outfit solidified them as title contenders at this race and they started to take their chances seriously. With most team members being new since 2008 (the last time McLaren were close to winning the title), it was easy to make blunders.

One such blunder was in Budapest, where they had put Norris on a faster strategy - they changed tires at a more optimum moment - than his teammate Oscar Piastri, who had started the race ahead of him.

As Piastri started ahead, the team begged Norris over the radio to give the position back. He obliged - just - but it was a stark reminder of where the team now found themselves at the front of the grid. It was also the start of Papaya Rules, an internal set of rules that the McLaren drivers must follow when racing each other.

Azerbaijan was always going to be one to remember with its tight streets and great racing. It was also the race where McLaren overtook Red Bull as leaders of the constructors’ table. 

Norris was always known as the priority in the team as he had more experience than his Australian teammate. Baku showed us that Piastri is not one to mess with, holding off a charging Leclerc until the very last lap. 

McLaren now knew that they had two drivers to rely on, and it was even better as both Ferrari’s Sainz and Red Bull’s Perez crashed out on the final lap of the race, losing both teams a heap of points.

The championship was about to get much more heated, though, with Ferrari coming in strong with upgrades that put them on pace with the British squad.

It all came down to the final race at Abu Dhabi. The gap was 21 points. All McLaren had to do was win and they’d automatically become champions with enough points. 

The weekend started off a breeze for Ferrari as their car suited the fast corners of the Yas Marina Circuit. That pace started to unravel in the race as Norris led every lap – the second time he’d ever done that – and secured first for the team.

The last time McLaren were F1 champions was back in 1998 – a year before Norris was even born. The 26-year gap between wins is the biggest interval in history for a constructor.