McLaren executives ambitious for 2024 season

McLaren unveiled, on Tuesday, January 16th, the new livery that will be worn by their 2024 race car, driven by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, during the upcoming Formula 1 season. On this occasion, Zak Brown, CEO of the McLaren Racing Group, and Andrea Stella, McLaren F1 team director, extensively expressed themselves on the Formula 1 website after an interview on McLaren’s official website.

A season filled with hope.

Zak Brown first took the floor and showed his enthusiasm by unveiling the livery of his future single-seater. « We are thrilled to unveil our Formula 1 livery for the 2024 season in anticipation of the new championship. The design is incredible, and I can’t wait to start and see it come to life on the track next month. »

“We didn’t start 2023 as we had hoped, but Andrea and the team have done an excellent job following the organizational restructuring that was implemented, and the hard work continues as we maintain this excellent momentum for the 2024 season,” he said.

The boss of McLaren showed the respect he had for his two drivers and also wished to greet his fans and partners. I am convinced that the exciting collaboration between Lando and Oscar will continue to create new memorable moments after an impressive second half of the year […]. These are steps forward compared to the previous year, as we continue our mission to push and compete at the front of the grid.

“We are eager to achieve our ambitions, and with our valuable partners and our fantastic fans by our side, they will play a crucial role in the journey of this season. We are grateful to them for their ongoing support and know that they share our passion for success,” expressed the American boss.

Andrea Stella, McLaren F1 team director for his second season, continued the encouraging words from his boss. After a busy and productive offseason, we are starting the 2024 season with the objective of continuing our progression towards the front of the grid. Last year allowed the team to lay solid foundations for the future through hard work, constant commitment, efforts, and talent.

“With our new infrastructure improvements and the right people in place, we must continue to raise our standards and integrate high performance in everything we do,” added the Italian director. “The livery of the 2024 season is superb, and I look forward to seeing our exciting duo of drivers, Lando and Oscar, take the wheel of the MCL38 next month,” he concluded.

New internal arrivals

Like all the teams on the 2024 grid, McLaren has decided to keep its two incumbent drivers, namely Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. However, internally, there has been a lot of activity at Woking over the winter. Andrea Stella will still be in charge of the team, but he is being joined by two new important figures.

Indeed, the executive and technical team is complemented by the arrivals of Rob Marshall, former engineer at Red Bull, and Frenchman David Sanchez, former member of the Scuderia Ferrari. The former will take on the role of Technical Director, Engineering and Design, while the latter will oversee the technical, conceptual, and performance aspects. After their “gardening” period, both men officially joined McLaren on January 1st.

The executive and technical trident will be supported by Peter Prodromou, who remains as the Technical and Aerodynamics Director, and Neil Houldey, who has been in the new position of Deputy Technical Director, Engineering and Design since last season.

« Starting from January 1st, we have Rob Marshall and David Sanchez, so they began examining the project, understanding how we work, getting to know the people […]. Hopefully, all these elements will contribute to making our team more competitive and delivering a better car than last year’s, said Stella regarding the arrival of the two new engineers.

« They come with a lot of knowledge and it’s not surprising, they have been part of big teams, big projects. This knowledge is a good thing because we see that it integrates with our know-how », he completed. « We have also had the opportunity to appreciate their personal approach, which, I think, engaged people in fascinating technical conversations. We see the momentum, the energy, and the ideas circulating within the organization, Stella reported about Marshall and Sanchez.

Modernized infrastructures

In addition to the arrival of new minds, McLaren also received its brand new facilities during the 2023 season. The Woking-based team now has a brand new wind tunnel, and the 2024 car is the first to benefit from this improvement. McLaren is also equipped with a new on-site simulator, which allows them to keep up with the cutting-edge technology used by their rivals.

“It’s interesting because we used the new infrastructure we received in 2023, so the MCL38 was developed entirely in the new wind tunnel at the McLaren Technology Centre starting in September. It was developed with the new simulator, and the composite and metal parts are produced in the new manufacturing facility that we have set up. It’s a truly exciting feature for the 2024 season,” commented Stella.

Now that the foundation of the 2024 car is complete with the new infrastructure and the new engineers working on it, Andrea Stella is looking towards the future seasons, particularly the year 2026 which is shaping up to be a turning point. « We are already laying the groundwork for how we will evolve from the 2024 to the 2025 model.”, he announces.

« Next, there is a 2026 project with completely new technical regulations, so there is so much work that we must accomplish. It is very important to have these high-quality individuals leading their respective technical fields because it means we have the capability and competence to tackle these three major projects with the necessary power to compete at the top of Formula 1, concludes the Italian director.

A gap with Red Bull to fill.

But according to Stella, the gap with Red Bull is still significant and it will be difficult for the British team to catch up with the Austrian world champions. “When we specifically think about Red Bull, there is one element that obviously puts everyone in doubt about what will happen in 2024,” he said. “And that is the fact that they didn’t develop their car much last year, so have they accumulated developments that they will use on next year’s car?” he wonders.

« That’s my theory, I cannot believe that Red Bull was not able to develop their car. They might have chosen not to provide an upgrade, […] so I would say that Red Bull should be extremely competitive.
»

His boss, Zak Brown, added, “We clearly want to continue closing the gap. We finished last year as the second or third fastest team, depending on the circuit.”

The car’s development has been solid. Red Bull certainly seems to not have developed last year to the level they could have if they had wanted to, so this could be an unpleasant surprise for all of us, confessed Brown.

The 2024 single-seater, the MCL38, will be unveiled on February 14th before heading to pre-season testing on the Bahrain International Circuit from February 21st to 23rd, in preparation for the first race of the season at the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 2nd, 2024.