2019 Review – McLaren: The Long-Awaited Redemption

The 2019 season promised a certain renewal at McLaren since last spring. Indeed, after the departure of Fernando Alonso and lamenting recurring difficulties in 2018, Zak Brown decided to start anew. Despite a comfortable budget, the Woking team had been unable to rise from the back of the grid for several seasons. After the setback associated with the collaboration with Honda and the English team’s overconfidence in their chassis, they could only observe a meager progression during the 2018 season. In the hands of Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso, Zak Brown’s team finished 6th, now equipped with the Renault engine. The executive director could not be content with aiming for the top 10 in each race and decided to recruit recognized talents to tackle the 2019 season.

From January, McLaren officially announced the arrival of Andreas Seidl, followed by James Key in March. Both equipped with a strong background in motorsport, one in endurance at Porsche, the other at Toro Rosso, they are paired with a brand-new duo of young drivers, Carlos Sainz and rookie Lando Norris.

After taking the risk of significantly altering the backbone of the British structure, Zak Brown can at this moment congratulate himself on the choices he made. The progress observed during this 2019 season is evident, and the Woking team can pride itself on its undeniable 4th place in the constructors’ standings, synonymous with being the best of the rest.

A false start quickly corrected

If the start of the season clearly began poorly in Australia with zero points after the first race, the English team quickly reacted by bringing their rookie Lando Norris to 6th position in Bahrain. The latter showed strength from his first performances in the race, proving to McLaren that they made the right choice. After retiring in his first two races, Carlos Sainz quickly got back on track and joined his teammate to kick off the superb season for Zak Brown’s organization. Taking advantage of the irregular performances of other teams, McLaren secured 4th position in the constructors’ standings by Baku, the fourth round of the season, and never let it go.

The Top 3 unreachable, the English team set a goal to maintain this 4th place and has seen Carlos Sainz consistently delivering strong race performances throughout the season. Although dominated in qualifying duels by the fast Lando Norris with a score of 10-11, the Spaniard leveraged his experience and tire management skills consistently, delivering impressive performances.

Energized by the formidable pair of young drivers and the expertise of the new staff led by Seidl and Key, McLaren achieves the long-awaited return to the Top 4 constructors, a position they hadn’t reached since 2012. This comeback is also connected to the reliability and improvement of the Renault engine block. Let’s note that McLaren, a customer team, also had the luxury of beating its engine supplier after a long-distance battle that, however, lasted only for a while.

Objective top 3

By securing 4th place in the Constructors’ Championship as early as the 4th GP of the season, McLaren managed to combine consistency in results while progressing in terms of pure performance. The strategies often paid off, as seen with Carlos Sainz’s superb 3rd place in Brazil, achieved even though the Spanish driver started from the last position on the grid. Taking advantage of various race situations, the team’s risky strategy of betting on a single pit stop should be applauded.

The former Renault driver highlights the step forward observed this season, quantifying it at one and a half seconds.

The evolution of the points gained during the season clearly shows that the battle between McLaren and the rest of the teams in the pack was short-lived. The consistency of the results from the Woking team contrasts with the performance gaps of other teams, notably Renault, who were neck and neck in the first third of the season but failed to maintain competitiveness as the season progressed. This reveals that beyond the common engine with Renault, significant work was done on the chassis of the English car, which enabled the two young drivers to have a ride capable of scoring big points.

The choice of the driver duo is also a success, benefiting from the experience and race solidity of Carlos Sainz and the speed of Norris, formidable in pure performance during qualifications. Although the latter has lamented some misfortunes during the season (engine failure on the last lap at Spa), his future within the team is promising given his top speed and great potential.

Making the decision to leave Renault in 2021 to choose a return to Mercedes as an engine supplier, McLaren is ideally positioned to prepare for its last season in collaboration with the Viry-Châtillon structure and will undoubtedly be able to give the top three teams a hard time as early as 2020, provided their progression curve continues in the same way as in 2019.