
McLaren’s Constructors’ Championship title is one of the most remarkable in Formula 1 history. The Woking-based team achieved an unprecedented recovery, rebounding from the significant struggles of the previous year and effortlessly overcoming the 50-second gap seen in the first race of 2024. The world championship win rewards what became, by the season’s end, the most versatile and competitive car on the grid—a result achieved through development based on four key pillars.
The concept shift
McLaren laid the groundwork for its success back in 2023 by acknowledging its failure to meet its initial design objectives. Development projections indicated it would only be the fourth-strongest team by year’s end, prompting the team to explore a new direction. This led to a mid-season concept shift, debuting in April with updates at Baku. Initially, the car’s performance remained steady, maintaining competitiveness while operating differently.
With the new platform, development accelerated rapidly. Updates introduced during 2023 brought McLaren back into contention for victories, excelling in short, high-speed corners when the floor was close to the ground. However, the MCL60 lacked the completeness needed to compete on all tracks—a key objective for the 2024 car. To achieve this, McLaren took its time, holding back on introducing all innovations at the start of the year to fully refine them. The first updates arrived in Miami, where the MCL38 immediately began accumulating wins.
“Our competitiveness started to change, and slow corners were no longer a clear weakness,” summarized Andrea Stella. With the Miami package and subsequent updates at Zandvoort and Austin, McLaren sacrificed some competitiveness in fast corners. In return, the MCL38 overcame difficulties in medium- and low-speed corners, where large steering angles and yaw compromised the floor’s efficiency. The team turned a long-standing weakness into a strength, dominating on tracks like Budapest, Zandvoort, and Singapore. “When it comes to medium-speed corners, it feels like we’re the best car,” Andrea Stella noted at the season’s end.
Driver confidence at the core
In 2024, McLaren achieved the completeness it needed, competing for wins not only on Qatar’s sweeping curves but also on Monaco’s hairpin turns. This improvement wasn’t solely due to increased aerodynamic downforce. The Miami updates also enhanced the car’s drivability, giving drivers more confidence to push to the limit, resulting in greater-than-expected performance gains. With fewer corrections needed, the MCL38 improved tire management during races, particularly with hard compounds and low fuel loads. It also became easier to set up, consistently hitting its optimal operating window in all conditions.
“The biggest improvement we could make to our car isn’t in terms of aerodynamic load but in ease of driving,” Norris remarked in 2023. The Briton was satisfied with the progress in drivability, especially after the previous year’s development had made the car more unpredictable in qualifying. The 2024 car also felt familiar to the drivers, thanks to a team that improved performance without altering its driving style.
Oscar Piastri noted, “It’s definitely not a completely different car from last year in terms of how it needs to be driven. Some things, though, have improved. Especially at the beginning of the year, we struggled in some areas that made the car hard to drive.” Improvements in drivability were most evident in long corners, where, until Miami, the MCL38 suffered instability after the initial steering input. McLaren traced the issue to the front end, leading to modifications to the front wing and suspension arm fairings.
The new wind tunnel
The drivability progress was surprising, considering that ground-effect aerodynamics typically increase the risk of compromising balance and predictability as updates extract more downforce. Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull all faced unforeseen side effects from upgrades, often requiring compromises that outweighed the theoretical aerodynamic gains. Development challenges stem from the sensitivity of ground-effect aerodynamics to real-world scenarios like floor movements, wind, curbs, or impacts with the asphalt—conditions not replicable in CFD or wind tunnels. However, during 2023 and 2024, every update McLaren introduced proved effective.
The team demonstrated a deep understanding of the physics at play, carefully analyzing every detail before bringing updates to the track, sometimes leaving three or four months between packages. A key contribution came from the new in-house wind tunnel, which became operational in October 2023. Equipped with next-generation sensors, the larger test chamber effectively simulated medium-speed corner scenarios. By preparing the model with large steering angles and yaw—orientation relative to airflow—airflows and turbulence no longer interacted with the tunnel walls, allowing a full analysis of their impact on the floor. The new facility also provided logistical benefits, enhancing internal communication and speeding up development compared to McLaren’s previous reliance on Toyota’s facilities in Germany.
The mindset
Drawing inspiration from competitors is routine in Formula 1, but winning requires creating trends, not merely following them. McLaren excelled here, demonstrating creative design approaches. Alongside Red Bull, McLaren was one of the only teams to start the year with a new sidepod configuration, featuring an extended upper lip for better airflow to the rear and reduced turbulence near the floor. More innovative was the relocation of the steering arm behind the suspension triangle, improving airflow to the Venturi channels.
While these solutions alone didn’t make the difference, they showcased the team’s ability to think outside the box and push regulatory limits. This included exploiting flexible wings, such as the controversial mini-DRS banned after Baku. Red Bull’s technical director Pierre Wache called it “a very grey area,” but it was hard to label the system illegal since it wasn’t designed to circumvent tests. Historically, FIA flexibility tests couldn’t fully replicate in-motion deformations. The FIA’s approach has always been to deem components legal if they pass static checks, refining tests in response to teams’ innovations.
Room for growth
McLaren’s win in Azerbaijan wouldn’t have been possible without the mini-DRS, combined with significant work on low-downforce efficiency. A success like Baku—or the strong performance at Monza—was unthinkable in 2023, when the car struggled with both slow corners and excessive drag on straights. Updates to the engine cover, wings, and beam-wing brought the MCL38 into contention on tracks requiring low-downforce setups, adding the versatility it previously lacked.
However, as Andrea Stella admitted before the summer break, there’s still room for improvement: “I think we’re at 50% of the work” on low-downforce configurations. Further gains could come from suspension mechanics to better handle curbs, especially at low speeds.
The biggest opportunities lie in addressing front-end graining issues, in contrast to the rear tire management that allowed McLaren to dominate on rear-limited tracks like Budapest, Zandvoort, and Singapore. “I think our car tends to be very kind on the rear tires, but when it comes to front graining, we’re aggressive, and that has unsettled us a bit,” Stella summarized after the Monza disappointment. Assistance is expected from Pirelli’s new tires, designed to be more resistant to graining.
Whether McLaren will defend its title in 2025 is uncertain, but one thing is clear: the Woking team’s car will be the one to beat.
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