How McLaren made F1’s best car even better

If McLaren had to sprint the abundant horse of Ferrari for the crown of the first constructive of the team since 1998 to the final barrier of the 2024 season to the final barrier of the 2024 season, it is moving towards another title in a canter this year.

Its 11 wins in 14 are almost double the six wins claimed last year, and this time due to no interpopers, Lando Noris and Oscar Piysthan will decide who will succeed Louis Hamilton as McLaren’s latest World Championship winner.

Naturally, the seedlings of its huge success were sown years ago. Carefully cultivated by the team’s boss Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown as they thought that the fertile soil of McLaren Technology Center did not give results that its huge engineering talent warned. This included a mixture of highlighting the full potential of some of the brightest brain already in the team, such as the aero guru Peter Products, whose contract was extended earlier this year, and with the fare of the outside with the revered red bull designer Rob Marshal.

Its 2025 Challenger – MCL39 trajectory – has also been in a long -term form. The possibility of the final season of the current regulations cycle of 2025, the demand was set against the backdrop of the revolution of 2026 rules, it was the reason to take stock and decide whether 2025 should be the year of development or revolution.

The answer below the grid for many teams was simple, the 2026 decision offers a major opportunity to return to the game. But as the 2024 title fight increased against Red Bull and Ferrari, Stella and her squad soon felt that playing it safely was not going to be an option for them if McLaren wanted to be on top.

Successor – eventually the title winner – MCL38 was going to be bold and ambitious.

“At some level during the 2024 season, we thought that in 2025 we really needed to take a step forward, as we saw that the top four teams were very close to each other, meaning that there was a lot of variability in the result of a race weekend,” Stela reported that he sat with Motorsport.com in Hungarian Grand Prix. “This also meant that if you make a little extra effort and you can clean this group, you can actually compete for very important results on a regular basis.”

Hugging engineering risks

An additional strategic advantage was loading its development before the date of January 2 of 2026 aero work, which meant that if its risky design approach was to be paid, it would be easy to focus on 2026.

“At the same time, we thought, if we are in a good position with a strong car in 2025, we can release the pressure a little on ’25 and focus more on ’26. Based on this we decided to go for a lot of innovation on 2025 car, MCL39, which we have innovated in some ways, which are in some areas, because we are in some areas, because we are in some areas.

This requires the most confidence among the Woking Engineers that McLaren would not bite much from chewing, Stella accepted the design department with such solutions – which is keeping it close to its chest, but inspired a lot of speculation – that “we have never done before”.

“The team is currently in a situation where we can take such engineering risk, and then we will learn on the way,” he explains his view. “You are committed to that risk and you believe that you will develop the right engineering, in fact the right procedures to deliver on some solutions, for example, good aerodynamics, but in fact applying them to the car can be something that we have never done before.

“Keeping this objective in mind, we have made a lot of innovation in every area and have gained efficiency. And I think the results we see on the track, the result is that there is an additional reason to be proud of what we have achieved.”

“We just wanted to go for basic things”

By cleverly packaging its MCL39, the design team gave a large playground to operate the Aero Department. The result was a much more aerially efficient car, an area that the team was historically struggling, while a race was very kind on its tires on a race stent – especially in summer. Some of that innovation came at a small cost, as it made the end of the car more numb to the qualifying, which was particularly influenced by Noris in the first third of the season, but has been reduced to a great extent since then.

The launch car was then upgraded further with the floor and wing elements, squeezing more downforce out of the car for a given drag level. The bottom line is that McLaren is still almost unbeatable on some circuits with long, medium-matched corners, but is now ready for an all-rounder who is capable of winning anywhere too much, while all have their own strengths in the form of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, but also have very weak weaknesses.

It explained why McLaren was initially so effective on tracks like Bahrain and Miami, but faced a terrible competition from Verustapen and Red Bull through Suzuka and Emola’s high-speed twist, and was a victim of George Rasel in Montreal Mercedes. But the team has increased its baseline performance level to an extent, where it is only the highest in the second or third best in any field.

However, Stella insisted on crafting an all-round car, with a greater emphasis on the performable performance compared to the peak downforce, was not a deliberate option, but of the by-product of good engineering.

“We didn’t really think about this: ‘Oh, we want the car to be multi -purpose and good in every circuit,” he explains. “We just wanted to go for fundamental things in terms of cooling efficiency, generate as much downfores as possible in a efficient way, trying to make a good conversation with tires. And also seek such payment, in terms of versatility and in many situations there is a very consistent car.

“At the same time, when we go into the details, we will see that if we take corners at the high-speed level of silverstone, we do not have the best car. Red bulls and Ferrari can be better than us. Or if we go to a low-speed circuit with kerbing, we do not make it completely.”

Stela insisted that McLaren will not be a major team after every race after summer breaks, with a circuit like Las Vegas, still a question mark after Mercedes beaten from there last year. But the strong stability of the squad ensures that it will not be caught in the championship, with any expectation of evaporation around the Spanish Grand Prix, when a new technical instruction on the controversial flexing front wings proved to not make a big difference – as the team warned its rivals about the first.

A floor upgrade at the spa further showed that McLaren is not taking her high position, and more skilled rear wings should also help in Vegas and other low downfores circuits.

For neutral fans, the silver lining of McLaren’s domination is that it keeps the team in a position to fight for the championship without major intervention, which will be a boon for F1 fans filled with a real title since the notorious 2021 campaign.

The technical groundwork is placed in the woking, now it is up to its two drivers to put their rocketship for good use, while Stella and Brown hope that they can retain the feeling of harmony of the squad.