A teenage Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen's father an active race: How F1 looked when McLaren last won a constructors championship

Lewis Hamilton as a teenager? What if we told you that the last time McLaren won the constructors championship, F1 was a completely different world? The 2024 season has a lot of interesting things happening, especially at the front of the grid.

One of the biggest, however, seems to be the fact that McLaren is the nailed-on favorite to win the constructors championship. The last time the team won that championship was in 1998.

Since then, a lot of things have changed. The team itself has housed some new talents. One of them who made their way to F1 was Lewis Hamilton.

The driver made his debut in 2007. He would also become the youngest F1 world champion in 2008 with the team. While McLaren did have Lewis Hamilton winning the drivers championship, the constructors championship went to Ferrari.

Since then, the team hasn't won the title, and this might be its first in 26 years. With that being said, how did F1 look like when McLaren last won the title? Let's take a trip down memory lane.

#1 Lewis Hamilton was a teenager

Yes, you heard that right! Lewis Hamilton was just a teenager who had turned 13 years of age in 1998. Interestingly, it was a milestone year for Lewis that season because he had just been signed by Ron Dennis for the McLaren driver development program. Looking back 26 years, and 7 world championship titles, it's safe to say that the program worked like a charm.

#2 Max Verstappen and Kevin Magnussen's fathers were active racers

Interestingly, two current F1 drivers, Max Verstappen and Kevin Magnussen, come from racing heritage. Both drivers had their father be a part of the grid at some point in their racing careers as well.

In 1998, both Jos Verstappen (Max's father) and Jan Magnussen (Kevin's father) were on the grid as active racing drivers.

Interestingly, both Jan and Jos were linked as the Danish driver took part in the first seven races for Stewart, only to be replaced by the Dutch driver for the rest of the season.

#3 Red Bull and Mercedes didn't exist as F1 teams

If we look at the current state of F1, it's almost impossible to even consider a world where Mercedes and Red Bull are not part of the grid. These two squads have dominated the sport since 2009 and there has not been a different winner.

First, it was Red Bull with Sebastian Vettel, then it was Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton, and then we've had the Austrian team again, but this time with Max Verstappen.

Yet, in 1998, the F1 grid did not have either of two teams. Red Bull was merely a sponsor, while Mercedes' presence was in the form of a partnership with McLaren.

#4 The Ferrari dream team was still taking shape

The F1 world didn't know what was to come when Michael Schumacher and Ferrari joined hands in 2000, which turned out to be the most successful driver-team championship-winning partnership at the time (only to be bettered by Lewis Hamilton with Mercedes). In 1998, however, the partnership was still not firing on all cylinders.

There were still a few things that needed working on. Michael Schumacher did mount some challenge to Mika Hakkinen and McLaren that season but the car and the team were just not ready to compete at the time.

#5 Christian Horner was racing in F3000

Finally, something that's going to come as a surprise is that the man who could potentially go down as one of the greatest team principals in F1 history was still trying to become a racing driver in 1998. Christian Horner was still in F3000 (modern-day F2) at the time racing with Arden with a hope of becoming a Formula 1 driver one day.

Soon that dream would end when Horner faced facts and changed course but at the time, he was still a nobody in the F1 world.