How McLaren faced up to the misinformation, noise and distractions of being an F1 title challenger

Delivering success in Formula 1 is not just about producing the fastest car, even though that is a critical part of it.

Instead, to win – and more especially to keep winning again and again and again – involves strong leadership, plotting your way out of difficulties, dealing with internal and external politics, and then batting away a few grenades lobbed by other teams along the way.

As McLaren boss Andrea Stella reflects on a remarkable 2024 campaign where his squad ended its 26-year wait for the constructors’ championship, he admits that there were some extreme challenges that went beyond just making sure its MCL38 was as quick as it could be.

Added to this all was an element of it needing to learn on the fly, because it was almost overnight that it went from the hunter to the hunted when its Miami upgrade thrust it to the front of the field.

Speaking to Autosport about what 2024 had thrown up, Stella said: “We needed to adapt somehow to the fact that the trajectory of the team was almost faster than our natural way of adapting.

“Sometimes we needed to learn very rapidly from what happened on track. Or sometimes outside the track, related to being now a competitive team.

“I can make the example of Monza. We were P1/P2 in Monza and somehow we didn’t expect it. And if I go back to before the race now, think I would make some adaptations.

“So the performance trajectory has been somehow so fast that we had to chase a bit as a team and make the necessary adaptations.”

One of the key changes that Stella said had to be made was in ramping up communications, ensuring that the squad was clear on its objectives and how it would handle tense moments. This meant a reshuffling of timetables and how it prepared for each grand prix.

“We have adapted over the year the weekend schedule, so that we have more conversations like those where teams have to deal with if both drivers can win a race, or what do we do in case of some situations which in the past were not relevant to us. We needed to adapt and learn very fast.”

The level of competitiveness on display in 2024, when four teams had cars capable of winning every race, also meant there was never a moment of being able to sit back and take stock.

Stella added: “This is hard because you are constantly in a position of discomfort.

“You never can be happy with what you have achieved, and you can never be happy with how you are doing things because, and we have seen this season, there were times it looked like McLaren was in a very strong trajectory, outdeveloping and outscoring everyone, and then others bounced back.

“There’s the hard aspect to manage, which is you constantly have to make sure that the team is in this state of filling a gap, and raising the bar.”

The noise factor

Being at the front puts you under the spotlight of your rivals and the media, who probe like never before to discover the secrets of success and then get on your back when things go wrong.

And there are also times when dramas appear totally out of the blue – like when McLaren found itself at the centre of intrigue in Brazil over the water-in-tyres cooling controversy that erupted.

“What is difficult, even if you get familiar with racing at the top, is to handle the noise and the distractions that come either internally or externally,” added Stella.

“You want to keep staying focused. And, in order to do so, you do have to have a structured approach, a conscious approach towards managing the noise, managing now that you are the headline. 

“And sometimes, like we have seen with the case of the water in the tyres, sometimes having to deal with misinformation, things that you know kind of don’t make any sense.

“And yet they become news and they become something that you cannot ignore, so you have to deal with. 

“So these are new dimensions in a way for a team that was not competing [for wins before] and they definitely proved to be requiring a lot of attention.

“Plus I would say this constant acknowledgement that it’s not enough.

“It would be good to say like ‘oh this is enough; it’s going to be an easy win’! But it’s not, so you always have to reposition and this is somehow hard to accept.”

The missed chances

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38, George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15, the rest of the field through the first chicane

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Another aspect that McLaren had to deal with, as it learned to cope with the new found pressures of being an F1 title contender, was handling the disappointments over opportunities that slipped through its fingers.

As well as left ruing points that went begging, like it leading out of the first chicane at Monza with a 1-2 but not converting that into a win, it also faced criticisms from outside over how it handled things.

This was a new experience for the squad and, while Stella admits there were times it got things wrong, equally he thinks that even the bad calls were not a disaster.

“I look at the facts.  And when I look at the facts, I can see a team that started the season in fourth position from a pecking order point of view and then I think have operated in a very solid way to gain the lead in the championship.

“I don’t think you can achieve this sort of solid scoring rate if you are not robust and consistent in the way you operate and deliver. 

“It is true that we have had some missed opportunities this season. Like, for instance, if we do Silverstone again, we’re going to put a set of medium tyres rather than use soft on Lando’s car.

“But still, when these opportunities were not capitalised, it’s not like there was a breakdown, or there was like a significant consequence; we were on the podium.

“Even in Monza, going back, should we attempt the one-stop like Leclerc did? Possibly. Yet, we were second and third.

“From this point of view, to some extent, the attention that has been brought over the alleged missed opportunities of McLaren, I think has been…I think it simply wasn’t very analytical.

“You put all the emphasis on you should have won this race. I put the emphasis on how robust the team has been. Yeah, we could have won the race. Yeah, but we’re still second and third. I think we have seen some other oscillations by some other competitors to a much larger scale in this season. 

“And also I would like to take this opportunity, as we talk about the missed opportunities, to say that the way we have approached all the missed opportunities, makes me very proud of the mindset, the culture of the team because we definitely try to attack all the opportunities as a learning.”

More to come

Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing, lifts the Constructors trophy on the podium

Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images

While McLaren’s season was not perfect – but perfection is almost impossible in a series as competitive as F1 – Stella thinks that it ultimately handled things as best it could.

Yet, despite coming out of the season on top, he does not see a squad that has reached its full potential.

“If anything, we are limited by capacity,” he said. “There’s so much we can learn from. It’s more like the capacity, the time, the resources.

“But this culture is very strong at McLaren. We always enjoy the quest, even when this offers some missed opportunities.

“I think we have always operated at the best of what we were capable of at the time. Our philosophy is that what’s important is that tomorrow we’re going to be better than today. And I can see this being implemented with great efforts.”