Can McLaren Make It Back to the Top of F1?

 by Seb Sharpe

Daniel Ricciardo
(image: XaviYuahanda)

Last F1 season was one of the weirdest of all time, with races coming thick and fast in both old and new circuits. Significantly, most races took place behind entirely closed doors with fans watching live world wide. Seat shuffling is a common feature within F1 as with high levels of sponsorship comes high levels of drama, be this over contracts or team chemistry. One such move is the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo at the returning McLaren. 

McLaren is undoubtedly a pillar of F1. However, the team has fallen on hard times with their last Grand Prix win coming at the hands of Jenson Button in 2012. This is natural within F1 as teams come in and out of successful periods, usually heavily linked to their ownership and funding, e.g. Mercedes. What is more interesting to observe is McLaren's comeback. The team has undergone an overhaul with the appointments of Andreas Seidl as McLaren team principal and Zak Brown as CEO of McLaren Racing, both of whom have worked tirelessly to secure the funding in order to bring McLaren back to where they belong. 

The most recent and arguably most significant stage of this return plan is the appointment of Ricciardo. Daniel is a certified, capital R, racer in every sense. The Australian comes from within the Red Bull development program and experienced great success within their F1 program. This means Ricciardo has experience of winning, something which could prove vital within the recovering McLaren. This is because many of the members of the McLaren team are relatively new to the sport and, despite technical skill, they lack the nous of a race winning team. In short, this intel may be able to help lift McLaren to the next level. 

Another significant upgrade within McLaren is the adoption of Mercedes produced engines. The reasons behind this go without saying as Mercedes are by far the most successful team on the grid. The adoption of these new engines should in theory allow McLaren to produce their most powerful car of recent memory (the MCL35M). 

One overlooked impact of this is McLaren's ability to effectively cheat the rules. Due to the impact of COVID-19 all teams have been prohibited from their usual off season spending and development as the importance of saving becomes increasingly obvious. However, McLaren are able to make developmental changes to their car in order to fit the new engine as long as the FIA rules that these changes are necessary in order to produce a functioning car with the new engine size. 

In effect this creates a loophole which McLaren will be able to exploit, giving them a further advantage against their competitors who will have made much lesser changes. Critically, McLaren will be able to afford these changes due to the recent investment from MSP sports capital (an investment firm from the US) which will grant McLaren a bonus of £185 million. This funding is vital in helping Zak Brown achieve his return strategy as development within F1 is monumentally expensive. 

In summary, there is much to be optimistic about within the McLaren group, making the upcoming 2021 season one to watch.