McLaren has returned to winning the Constructors’ Championship after more than two decades, surpassing ambitious Ferrari, the Red Bull phenomena, and Mercedes’ engine suppliers. This underscores the scale of the achievement, which becomes even greater considering that last year, at the start of the season, the MCL60 was struggling in the back of the field. A miraculous comeback, the result of the work of Andrea Stella and the other key figures in a team that has finally returned to the level its history demands.
The biggest mistake McLaren could make is resting on its laurels. Andrea Stella has warned against this prospect. The engineer-manager (here’s his profile) fears what he calls “poisoned cookies.”
What does this mean? Essentially, external interference and self-satisfaction with the result achieved. To ensure long-term success for McLaren, these dangerous paths must be avoided. And this must be done now, while the victory cups are still raised.
“Refusing poisoned cookies is one of the key elements to verify and validate that the culture we’ve created is not just theory, but manifests in reality,” explained Stella. “There will always be poisoned cookies in our path. There will always be attempts to create divisions, to break the cohesion of the team.”
“But we remind ourselves every day that we won’t accept those cookies. It would be naive and arrogant to think that, just because we’ve reached a goal, we’re now perfect, we can relax, and believe everything is owed to us simply because we are world champions. There’s nothing new here: I believe the best philosophy is to start again as if we’ve lost. And that’s exactly what we’ll do in preparation for the next season.”
McLaren MCL39: A Risky Car
To continue leading, McLaren wants to play not only on the psychological front but also take risks on the technical side. Leaks from the Woking-based team indicate that some “risks” are being taken with the design of the 2025 car, aiming for a double victory in the titles on offer in Formula 1.
After a year that far exceeded initial expectations, McLaren CEO Zak Brown explained that the approach for 2025 will be completely different, both in terms of ambition and mentality.
In an exclusive interview with Autosport, Brown stated that the team is not satisfied with the current car’s pace and has chosen to push beyond the limits with ambitious design ideas for next year.
“We’re approaching next year at full throttle. I think we’re now in a different mindset, more confident and willing to take risks in the development of the 2025 car. The team isn’t thinking, ‘Let’s just tweak a few things here and there, the car is good enough.’ We have some solutions for the next car that are real risks.”
“I think you only reach the top by trying to beat everyone, rather than settling for being competitive. Our mentality now is: ‘We will beat everyone.’” Brown emphasized that McLaren knows it must be at the forefront in 2025 to challenge Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes, all teams that won races in the final stages of the season.
“We have to beat them on track, outsmart them strategically, and go beyond that, abandoning a ‘don’t make mistakes’ mentality because it’s not competitive enough. Now we’re very strong and we have two exceptional drivers. That’s a huge strength.”
“The competition is really strong. Mercedes is there, as well as Ferrari and Red Bull,” added the American manager. “Just when it seems one of these teams is starting to slow down, they manage to turn everything around. I think next year there will be four teams capable of winning both championships.”
After a year in which McLaren had to relearn how to win and missed some opportunities to compete for the Drivers’ Championship, Brown says the team has gained a lot of confidence from its experiences, even the less fortunate ones.
“I think we’ll be much better prepared next year because this year we started without imagining we could be where we are today. Perhaps we weren’t mentally ready. We weren’t unprepared, but we didn’t have the mentality that now defines us. We’ll approach next year knowing how difficult it will be, but with the will to win both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships.”
“This year, the goal was to finish in the top three and see if Lando could get his first win. Now we’re beyond that. We have two drivers capable of fighting for the world title, and we aim to win both.”
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