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The year was 2015, and a crisis was officially declared at McLaren. The team had joined hands with Honda as its power unit manufacturer, and the result had been catastrophic. Not only was the power unit horrific, but it was also years behind the benchmark, Mercedes.
McLaren had two world champions in the team, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, so the driver lineup was right up there with the best on the grid. The car and the power unit combination, however, was a debacle. The team finished P9 in the championship in 2015, a far cry from the title-contesting car it built in 2012 and the years prior.
The partnership with Honda continued until 2017, after which the team decided to prematurely end the partnership with the Japanese manufacturer and move to Renault.
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Since 2018, McLaren has been on a slow and steady path of progress. A path that has culminated in the team poised to win its first constructors championship in the 21st century. How did this turnaround happen? What is the secret behind McLaren's rise to the front? Let's take a look.
How McLaren charted its resurgence
Get rid of the baggage
When Zak Brown took over in 2018 as the CEO, the first thing that seemed obvious with McLaren was the fact that the team was entirely fixated on one thing, catering to Fernando Alonso's demands. The Spaniard had joined the team with hopes of challenging for the title but that was not happening. On the contrary, the team had regressed.
Not only that, Alonso's ferocious nature had left the second driver Stoffel Vandoorne in a vulnerable position as he struggled to figure things out in the sport.
Fernando Alonso is a driver worthy of a title-contending car, and if he doesn't have that, he'll push the team relentlessly towards that goal. It was a mismatch that had left the team in a rut and it was at this point that Zak Brown gave Alonso the option to leave the team.
The Spaniard took a sabbatical from 2019 onwards as he was just tired of dragging the car to places it didn't deserve every weekend. From 2019, McLaren had a younger, more energetic lineup in Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr.
Accept that it would take time
The biggest problem for a team in a bad place, especially if it has fallen from the highs that McLaren did, was the realization that the return to the top is going to be a long and arduous exercise. It's going to take time and it's going to take patience.
Once Alonso was gone and the focus changed to two young drivers, the team stopped focusing on jumping straight to the front of the grid. Targets changed and that gave the team the breathing space it didn't have for a while.
Focus on incremental growth
The next target was a focus on incremental growth. From a perennial backmarker, McLaren made an impressive jump to be the midfield frontrunner in 2019 and 2020. The team was the first of the contenders lining themselves up to be the next big challenger.
For a while, this was what the team focused on as there was work going on simultaneously in the background to ramp up the facilities to a point where the team could become a frontrunner.
The incremental growth is something that the team also applied when it came to aligning itself with a power unit supplier. First, it moved from Honda to Renault. This helped the team make important strides. The team then upgraded to Mercedes, which was the best power unit on the grid, and that was the next step in making another jump to the front of the grid.
Invest in youth
By 2022, McLaren knew that if the car was going to be competitive, the team needed Lando Norris. This was something that was plainly obvious and there wasn't much debate on that front. This was the reason why when McLaren went through a bit of a slump during the 2022 and early 2023 season, Zak Brown's focus was on ensuring Lando's future with the team.
The McLaren driver was assured that the team was being built keeping him in mind, and when it reached the front, he would be the one leading the charge.
Ruthlessness
While there was a tentative beginning to life for McLaren when Zak Brown took over, the team has gotten more and more ruthless as it has grown stronger. One of the examples was how Daniel Ricciardo was dropped prematurely by the team as the Australian just couldn't get to grips with the car. The same holds true for the manner in which Oscar Piastri was snatched underneath the noses of Alpine and selected as Ricciardo's replacement.
The ruthlessness can also be seen in the manner in which the team has been on a poaching spree, and every time it is a very important member from the other team. Rob Marshall has probably proven to be the biggest acquisition for the team, as his contribution is unmistakable right now.
No politics
The biggest red flag for any team that's trying to make it big in F1 is when it is being run from the boardroom. McLaren has averted this and has been brilliant when it comes to keeping a clear hierarchy.
Before Andrea Stella was promoted, it was Zak Brown at the top, and then we had Andreas Seidl. The chain of command has been clear, and that's something that has helped keep things stable within the team.
