"At the moment, the focus for 2025 is everything," Houldey said. "And actually that's not just about the car, that's about the whole team. We know that the car can go faster. We can develop the car further.
"We know as a team every area can find ways of being more effective, more efficient, generating more and more performance in their own individual groups as well. So 2025 for us is the same as any other year, and an opportunity to show what McLaren are now capable of doing."
This optimism and confidence is very much against the norm for McLaren these last couple of years. I guess winning the constructors has boosted everyone's confidence but I do hope they remain with both feet on the ground and acknowledge the circmustances of the 2024 season in full.
The car was good but they were somewhat flattered by RedBull and Ferrari running into massive development problems throughout the year. Aside from that, there was unrealized potential in the MCL38 after Miami. By their own admission, the development curve was expected to continue at a similar pace as it started with the Austria package back in 2023.
That did not materialize for whatever reason and the car last season did not see major developments beyond the Miami package. The upgrade sheets were deceiving because while in terms of quantity it might have seemed like they were continuing to bring major developments to the car, in reality most of those were small changes. Either suspension fairings or brake duct winglets or minor front wing edge tweaks.
I am pretty sure that McLaren is well aware of everything though and I would expect Andrea Stella at the very least to recognize the "danger" from rivals (Ferrari in particular, who showed really high development rate towards the end of the season once their issues were fixed) and keep the team humbled and focused on the job.
Assuming that to be true, this confidence kind of makes you assume that they must have found something new or major when it comes to development potential that will allow them to make a big step over the MCL38. Unfortunately, you never know what the rivals are cooking during the winter in Formula 1, so the first couple of races this year will be really interesting.
Pretty much all of the top teams are aiming high and are confident in their chances. Obviously, only one of them will take the glory in the end.
