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McLaren was the surprise of the 2023 F1 season as it leapfrogged the midfield and started competing with the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes. It has also kicked off the 2024 F1 season much earlier than the other teams. Mercedes has released an impressive video where it took shots at sections of the media that wrote off the Woking-based squad last year.
The 2023 F1 season saw McLaren flip the perception completely from being a perennial midfielder to a frontrunner. The team has come out with fighting words even before the car launch season has officially begun.
Having said that, for the 2024 F1 season, the team's primary focus will be to get the better of Mercedes and not Red Bull. Here's why.
#1 McLaren did lose to Mercedes in 2023
There's no doubt that McLaren turned things around after its upgrade in Austria but one cannot deny the fact that the team still finished behind Mercedes in the championship. To add to that, the last few races saw McLaren being a tad slower than its engine supplier.
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There was a lot of fighting talk from Zak Brown at the livery launch where he claimed that McLaren had the best driver lineup in F1. Well, having a lineup with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris certainly gives the team formidability but is it better than Lewis Hamilton and George Russell at Mercedes?
The answer to that is probably no for the time being as Piastri has still shown some obvious weaknesses in his game.
#2 Beating Mercedes makes McLaren the best car with the German power unit
The reason why beating Mercedes is significant at this stage would be because of the dogma attached to the works teams and the customer outfits. There was a time in F1 when these two brands coexisted.
McLaren-Mercedes was an iconic brand that stayed together for more than a decade. It only separated in 2010 when Mercedes got its own team on the grid. Until 2012, McLaren held the edge over its German counterpart.
However, since 2013, Mercedes has not finished behind the Woking-based squad in the championship and it coincides with the fall of McLaren from being a perennial frontrunner.
Beating its power unit supplier will be a statement of intent and make the British squad the de facto leader of the teams with a Mercedes power unit.
#3 Red Bull might just be out of reach anyway
Finally, and maybe a tad depressingly, it might be a tough pill to swallow for its competitors but Red Bull might just be out of reach of everyone else once again this season.
The car was just too good last year. If one adds to it the teeny tiny detail that Red Bull stopped working on that car very early in the year and shifted focus to the 2024 challenger, the other teams have an ominous situation in front of them.
While McLaren will primarily be hoping to hunt down Red Bull and fight for the title in the upcoming season, it might just be a step too far as things stand.
