2024 Mclaren Formula 1 Team

[bananapeel23]

Both helmets and the suits/team gear look great.

I do think it all looks great. Though I must say that I would have no idea that Norris' helmet is a Senna tribute without being told it is.

[taperoo2k]

With Seidl and Key, McLaren was barely grasping points. With Stella, McLaren recovered almost the entire gap to the top in 18 months. Brown was good to keep the team afloat, but Stella is the man of the hour, as clear as day.

Which is down to Zak Brown making adjustments to his "Winning titles by 2025" plan.

[Emag]

I remember when Zak said that McLaren would have no excuses if they weren't competing at the top by 2025, people did not take it seriously and nobody believed him -> https://formu1a.uno/it/zak-brown-mclare ... s-in-2025/

To be honest, I didn't think there was enough time to turn it around for 2025 after the step backwards in 2022, but damn did things change quickly

[_DM_]

According to Zak, Stella was one of his preferences for TP since back in 2019, however Stella refused the role back then because he did not feel ready. That's why he pursued Seidl. Surely his influence on the team must have been quite obvious to see for a CEO to notice it just one year after joining. Stella has been with this team since Fernando brought him from Ferrari. He was there during the worst time for McLaren and he was one of the few who saw the downfall of the team transpire. I would argue the downfall started a couple of years before Stella joined, but still, 2014/2015 is widely regarded as the beginning of the downward spiral for McLaren.

He is an exceptional talent with amazing problem solving skills. I think most people don't know he has a phd in mechanical engineering. A true engineer with a critical mind who keeps an eye on every little detail of the team. I am sure Stella noticed things going slightly south between 2021/2022, but because he was not the TP, the only thing he could do at the time was suggest changes.

I think it's not fair to judge Andreas Seidl for the short tenure he had at McLaren, but I am 90% confident that hiring James Key was one of the few wrong moves Zak Brown did on his journey to reviving this team. Cannot blame him as he was highly rated in the paddock a couple of years back, but he had hardly achieved anything worthy of a "wow" back then. In 2021, he just took over the mature concept developed by Pat Fry in 2019 (the 2019 car saw McLaren jump from back of the midfield to the front of the midfield). There were bad signs already in 2021 because the in-season development was laughable. Got completely slapped by Ferrari and went from fighting with them for occasional podiums at the beginning of the season to barely scrapping for points at some rounds towards the end.

And then 2022 was the real test for him and he failed. He came up with a bland looking car and admitted to taking the "safe cautious way". I just consider that fancy words for "this is the best I could do". Zak mentioned it somewhere that early 2022 was a tipping point for him because there was no sense of urgency in the technical team for the lack of performance. An upgrade at France was promised to deliver a big step, and when that failed the targets the reaction to the failure must have been pretty mild.

I am glad Zak took action. Key must have been overriding more talented people since he was the technical director. Once Stella came along, Peter Prodromou probably was given the reins in aerodynamics and boy did he deliver. Let's see what Key will do at Audi for 2026, but I have a feeling he will fumble that up too ...

The team is at a very good place right now, and it's almost criminal that poor management left some highly talented people on the sidelines. Of course the team has had reinforcements lately in the form of highly-rated hirings, but the team of people that initiated the turnaround last year were people that already were working at McLaren.

It just took a better leader to get things going.

Wow, great post Emag. I can't see any inconsistencies in your account - cause and effect are addressed. Zak never ascribed to any technical knowledge but his forte was in management and sponsorship/relationship building. Having a non-technical background meant he had to trust who he had, and scout available personnel where he could poach them. Once the deficiency in the James Key technical leadership became more and more apparent, Zak acted and how good it was that rather than appointing from outside, he promoted from within. Most of the pieces of the puzzle were already there. Seidl was a corporate type guy from the Volkswagen conglomerate, not used to the under 1000 business model and also not strong enough in technical knowledge, certainly in the hands-on way. Thoroughly decent, Andreas was a bad fit once he got the commitment top modernising the tools - wind tunnel, simulation and fabrication tools - all of which would have been at the behest of those below him anyway.

So the strong growth starting in 2019 through to early 2021 reached it's limiting factors. Namely, good staff were being stymied by a technical director who failed in maximising the team's individual abilities into a coherent whole. Thank goodness the late 2022 into early 2023 management restructure took place in time to not lose guys like Prodromou who seems to be at the leading edge of F1 aero in 2024. Stella has enough technical background and plenty of people skills to be a fantastic "orchestra leader". It's wonderful for fans who have stuck with this team through some very sorry times to be here enjoying the fruit of a team that is greater than the sum of it's parts, as the old saying goes. If a poll were taken today among the F1 knowledgable, Andrea Stella would win best Team Principle hands down

Zak seems like a positive person. Always smiling. Very light and simple on the one hand, and strong on the other. There seems to be a light atmosphere in the team too.
And let's not forget - now they have a new tunnel and simulator.

Just wondering how many new resumes will be sent to them now?

[mwillems]

I remember when Zak said that McLaren would have no excuses if they weren't competing at the top by 2025, people did not take it seriously and nobody believed him -> https://formu1a.uno/it/zak-brown-mclare ... s-in-2025/

To be honest, I didn't think there was enough time to turn it around for 2025 after the step backwards in 2022, but damn did things change quickly

I don't think anyone thought we'd be championship material at the start of last year.

Absolutely no-one would suggest it possible for a team to make the gains we've relentlessly made over the past 12 months since James "Cautious" Key devises the Baku upgrade.

[BMMR61]

According to Zak, Stella was one of his preferences for TP since back in 2019, however Stella refused the role back then because he did not feel ready. That's why he pursued Seidl. Surely his influence on the team must have been quite obvious to see for a CEO to notice it just one year after joining. Stella has been with this team since Fernando brought him from Ferrari. He was there during the worst time for McLaren and he was one of the few who saw the downfall of the team transpire. I would argue the downfall started a couple of years before Stella joined, but still, 2014/2015 is widely regarded as the beginning of the downward spiral for McLaren.

He is an exceptional talent with amazing problem solving skills. I think most people don't know he has a phd in mechanical engineering. A true engineer with a critical mind who keeps an eye on every little detail of the team. I am sure Stella noticed things going slightly south between 2021/2022, but because he was not the TP, the only thing he could do at the time was suggest changes.

I think it's not fair to judge Andreas Seidl for the short tenure he had at McLaren, but I am 90% confident that hiring James Key was one of the few wrong moves Zak Brown did on his journey to reviving this team. Cannot blame him as he was highly rated in the paddock a couple of years back, but he had hardly achieved anything worthy of a "wow" back then. In 2021, he just took over the mature concept developed by Pat Fry in 2019 (the 2019 car saw McLaren jump from back of the midfield to the front of the midfield). There were bad signs already in 2021 because the in-season development was laughable. Got completely slapped by Ferrari and went from fighting with them for occasional podiums at the beginning of the season to barely scrapping for points at some rounds towards the end.

And then 2022 was the real test for him and he failed. He came up with a bland looking car and admitted to taking the "safe cautious way". I just consider that fancy words for "this is the best I could do". Zak mentioned it somewhere that early 2022 was a tipping point for him because there was no sense of urgency in the technical team for the lack of performance. An upgrade at France was promised to deliver a big step, and when that failed the targets the reaction to the failure must have been pretty mild.

I am glad Zak took action. Key must have been overriding more talented people since he was the technical director. Once Stella came along, Peter Prodromou probably was given the reins in aerodynamics and boy did he deliver. Let's see what Key will do at Audi for 2026, but I have a feeling he will fumble that up too ...

The team is at a very good place right now, and it's almost criminal that poor management left some highly talented people on the sidelines. Of course the team has had reinforcements lately in the form of highly-rated hirings, but the team of people that initiated the turnaround last year were people that already were working at McLaren.

It just took a better leader to get things going.

Wow, great post Emag. I can't see any inconsistencies in your account - cause and effect are addressed. Zak never ascribed to any technical knowledge but his forte was in management and sponsorship/relationship building. Having a non-technical background meant he had to trust who he had, and scout available personnel where he could poach them. Once the deficiency in the James Key technical leadership became more and more apparent, Zak acted and how good it was that rather than appointing from outside, he promoted from within. Most of the pieces of the puzzle were already there. Seidl was a corporate type guy from the Volkswagen conglomerate, not used to the under 1000 business model and also not strong enough in technical knowledge, certainly in the hands-on way. Thoroughly decent, Andreas was a bad fit once he got the commitment top modernising the tools - wind tunnel, simulation and fabrication tools - all of which would have been at the behest of those below him anyway.

So the strong growth starting in 2019 through to early 2021 reached it's limiting factors. Namely, good staff were being stymied by a technical director who failed in maximising the team's individual abilities into a coherent whole. Thank goodness the late 2022 into early 2023 management restructure took place in time to not lose guys like Prodromou who seems to be at the leading edge of F1 aero in 2024. Stella has enough technical background and plenty of people skills to be a fantastic "orchestra leader". It's wonderful for fans who have stuck with this team through some very sorry times to be here enjoying the fruit of a team that is greater than the sum of it's parts, as the old saying goes. If a poll were taken today among the F1 knowledgable, Andrea Stella would win best Team Principle hands down

Zak seems like a positive person. Always smiling. Very light and simple on the one hand, and strong on the other. There seems to be a light atmosphere in the team too.
And let's not forget - now they have a new tunnel and simulator.

Just wondering how many new resumes will be sent to them now?

Zak drips papaya, his love of the heritage of the company all the way back to Bruce and Teddy, is why it's papaya today. McLaren at a brief moment in history had the most diverse racing resume - F1, F2, Indy, CanAm sportscast, and manufacturing in it's sights. Ron Dennis rescued them from near extinction and took them on an F1 focus before setting out to becoming a supercar manufacturer. Without a guy called John Hogan at Marlboro, it wouldn't have happened. Then Ron became overly stubborn and said no to smaller sponsor offers and other possibilities like Newey.

Zak is extremely passionate, but passion alone doesn't bring about winning. When he took the reins of McLaren it was a mess due to Ron's stubbornness - no sponsors, arrogance, blame, a laughing stock. It was hard for a McLaren fan to watch through the Honda debacle. RedBull's Honda involvement woke the team out of it's sleep but it had fallen behind in too many areas to list here. Zak provided tried and true marketing and management principles. He faced cultural rejection from some as a Californian but he has won through. His marketing company had ties with the aforementioned John Hogan. He promotes not just McLaren - the great people who are part of the revival get recognition. Expect to see some less familiar faces on the podium as McLaren take the top step more often. Could it be Monaco 2024?

[MTudor]

Stella was at Ferrari's golden years with Schumacher/Todt/Brown and seen the type of culture that brings succes to a team,25 years later he brought that culture to Mclaren and once he was in charge he appointed the right people in the right roles.
Zak was then right man to rescue a sinking ship at Mclaren to bring in sponsors to a bare car.
Seidl has one merit he pushed the board for investment in a new wind tunnel,simulator and new production facilities close to MTC.

[mwillems]

Whilst I love celebrating people and Stella is a fantastic team principal. It is the engineers and their leaders who have driven unprecedented gains in this sport. Peter P and his team. The chassis and suspension folks.

Yes Zak built the team.
Yes Stella unlocked the potential.

But they'd both look a hell of a lot less good or even not good at all if it wasn't for the absolute quality there is in the team.

Not sure thus discussion needs to be as binary as it is. We're lucky to have all the team we have and thanks to all of them we are in the best position we've been in for over a decade.

[Tomsky]

[LionsHeart]

The weather forecast so far shows 21 degrees for Friday and Saturday and 21-22 for Sunday. Some chance of rain on Saturday. In general, the temperature is very good for McLaren; it will be easier to warm up the tires and keep them in the operating range than for Ferrari.

[SilviuAgo]

The weather forecast so far shows 21 degrees for Friday and Saturday and 21-22 for Sunday. Some chance of rain on Saturday. In general, the temperature is very good for McLaren; it will be easier to warm up the tires and keep them in the operating range than for Ferrari.

If weather forecast maintain that will be good. If I remember correct Lando said in Imola he had some tire issues due to the fact that they set up the car for a race in cooler conditions. But due to the fact that the temperature was hotter he had to gently bring in the tire both in Medium stint and also in Hard stint. And after he passed the critical point of loosing the tire, we saw what he did, chasing down Max till last corner.

[mclaren111]

Whilst I love celebrating people and Stella is a fantastic team principal. It is the engineers and their leaders who have driven unprecedented gains in this sport. Peter P and his team. The chassis and suspension folks.

Yes Zak built the team.
Yes Stella unlocked the potential.

But they'd both look a hell of a lot less good or even not good at all if it wasn't for the absolute quality there is in the team.

Not sure thus discussion needs to be as binary as it is. We're lucky to have all the team we have and thanks to all of them we are in the best position we've been in for over a decade.

[FittingMechanics]

I was hyped to see cars on track and only now I realized they don't run on Thursday? I thought they did that in Monaco.

[bauc]

I was hyped to see cars on track and only now I realized they don't run on Thursday? I thought they did that in Monaco.

Yes, this was the case always, I haven't realized that they have changed this as well.

[LionsHeart]

The weather forecast so far shows 21 degrees for Friday and Saturday and 21-22 for Sunday. Some chance of rain on Saturday. In general, the temperature is very good for McLaren; it will be easier to warm up the tires and keep them in the operating range than for Ferrari.

If weather forecast maintain that will be good. If I remember correct Lando said in Imola he had some tire issues due to the fact that they set up the car for a race in cooler conditions. But due to the fact that the temperature was hotter he had to gently bring in the tire both in Medium stint and also in Hard stint. And after he passed the critical point of loosing the tire, we saw what he did, chasing down Max till last corner.

It wasn't quite like that. Lando experienced problems on medium tires. The main problem was oversteer in Turn 3, and when the Medium tires started to fade there was also an issue with understeer exiting Turn 12. In general, the balance was such that there was a lot of grip in the front, but the rear sometimes lacked stability and grip. Max, in turn, experienced problems on Medium tires, but his front end did not turn, he went off the track a couple of times, all because of understeer in 6, 17 turns. On Hard tires he failed to get to the apex of Turn 7 a couple of times. Max also had an oversteer a couple of times at the exit of Turn 3, and a disadvantage entering Turn 2.

I looked at the full race onboard of Ham, Pia, Lec, Nor and Ver. Lewis had the biggest problems with balance. Lando is a little better. Next are Max, Oscar and Charles. Charles and Oscar's chassis behavior was very stable. It’s even surprising that, taking into account all the problems with balance, Lando was the fastest if we take the entire racing segment. I can only imagine how much faster Lando could have been if the angle of attack on the front wing had been lower in the race, giving him more optimal balance.

I don’t remember if the angle of attack of the wing on Lando’s car was changed on the pit, but Max asked the engineer to add two clicks. And during the pit, his wing settings were changed. Lando, in turn, changed the balance of the brakes and differential to make life easier for himself. On the whole, he succeeded. True, the front end still had a lot of grip. So far, this is the second race where Lando does not experience critical problems with the understeer in the race. Therefore, the handling and balance of the chassis have changed a lot after the big updates in Miami.