It's been 12 years since McLaren last had a claim to being the fastest car on the F1 grid, and a lot has changed since then. Papaya is the new chrome (in more ways than one). There's no Ron Dennis in the building, but there is a Zak Brown now. There have been massive ups and (mostly) downs in the meantime, as the team from Woking adorned the cloak of an upstart midfielder, surfing a rising tide to the very top. At the centre of that revolution lies Lando Norris.
A man of McLaren pedigree, Norris has been the face of the team’s renaissance, growing from a rookie learning to swim the F1 waters and now blossoming into the sabre that should rattle the reigning champion’s hold over the throne. Norris has had a remarkable 2024 season, bagging his first win at the Miami Grand Prix, allowing him to finally put to rest the tragi-comic Lando “NoWins” label, a twist on his surname which pays tribute to his wins (or lack thereof). In the rocket ship that is the McLaren MCL38, Norris has brought home two more wins along with his maiden one–the Dutch and Singapore Grands Prix. Despite these successes, some might still label him a ‘fraud’ more than a contender for the laundry list of missed opportunities–or ‘bottles’ as they are popularly termed that have accompanied the successes. His teammate, Australian driver Oscar Piastri, has also been immensely impressive with his performances, capturing two wins so far at the Hungarian and Azerbaijan Grands Prix in his sophomore campaign.
Liberty Media and Netflix’s Drive to Survive have painted McLaren as the fun and friendly team on the grid. From their media content to the personalities that their drivers have in the eyes of the public, and even their terminology used during races for serious matters (such as Papaya Rules in place of team orders), they appear to be the ideal team–just for those looking to engage in a reality show, and not a competitive sport.
The team, once heralded as a home to some of Formula 1’s greatest–Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Niki Lauda, and most recently Lewis Hamilton–appeared to be the personality hires of the grid, especially after 2018, following a change in leadership. The 2024 season, however, has done justice to the classic McLaren Racing team’s brand, with 5 wins and 13 podiums as of the Austin Grand Prix at COTA. Through these wins, what remains constant is McLaren’s inability to escape the midfield team mindset that they’ve seemingly immersed themselves in.
Budapest was a watershed moment in the 2024 campaign for McLaren, as it simultaneously marked the beginning of a season that currently sees them atop the Constructors’ standings but also appears to have opened up a Pandora’s Box.
Locking out the front row, Norris arose from a dramatic qualifying session at the Hungaroring with pole position in his bag, beating his teammate by two-tenths of a second. In the opening lap of the race, he succumbed to the same forces that had led him to slip up in Turn 1 of multiple races. While it is unclear whether these mishaps were out of incompetence or pressure, it opened the door for Piastri to swoop in and take the lead in Budapest. A little over halfway through the race, an error on Piastri’s side at Turn 11 caused him to run wide into the run-off area and shortened the gap between the Australian and his teammate. Piastri pitted on Lap 47, two laps after Norris, which led him to emerge behind the latter.
In a controversial turn of events however, only three laps before the chequered flag, team orders from McLaren forced Norris to give up his position and let Piastri through which thus led to the Australian bagging his first career win. Throughout the race, it seemed as though only one thing was running through the McLaren pit wall–pure chaos. The missed opportunity to let Norris through wasn’t the only letdown during the race for the team as they also failed to utilise Verstappen’s struggle throughout the race in addition to a disappointing P5 finish to their advantage.
Only three races later, another wasted opportunity played out at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. As the front row bled papaya once again, Verstappen could only struggle to 7th on the grid. The opportunity for Lando to land a huge blow to Max's lead was right there. Yet it all went up in smoke on lap 1, as Norris kept up his record of failing to lead the race on Lap 2 after starting from the pole position. He maintained the lead exiting the first chicane but fell to third only a few corners later. Entering the turn 4 chicane, Norris braked early, which gave Piastri the golden opportunity to go around the outside, maintaining control over his brakes. In allowing their drivers to go wheel to wheel for a win, McLaren let Leclerc’s Ferrari through to claim a home victory–an act of folly. While the drivers did not say much about how they felt about team orders working in or against their favour, one thing was clear– if Norris was to win the 2024 World Driver’s Championship, Team Principal Andrea Stella had to take a stance not only on team strategy but also who they would seek to prioritise in the championship.
Take a stance they did, because leading up to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku, McLaren Racing issued a bold statement. Following an interview with BBC Sport, it was made clear by Stella that the team would consider imposing team orders which would give Norris the upper hand in races to fight for the Championship against Dutch rival, and three-time World Champion, Max Verstappen. Interestingly, however, Norris qualified 15th after a disappointing early exit in qualifying, while his teammate and newly proclaimed second driver qualified second. To make matters worse, Piastri bagged his second win at Baku, while an impressive drive from Norris had him finish 4th, after gaining 11 positions, leaving him just short of a podium. Norris, however, bounced back for the next race, with a 20-second lead win on the streets of Singapore.
What is fascinating, however, is that in the midst of this is a former driver to whom the entire concept of team orders brings up sour memories. Mark Webber, Piastri’s manager and mentor, happened to repeatedly find himself in a similar situation with his teammate at Red Bull Racing, 4-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel. Webber, who had scrapped his way throughout his F1 career, with rides in backmarker teams like Minardi, had suffered his fair bit at the hands of his teammate, with two incidents that marked the peaks of their (in)famously non-harmonious relationship, the first of which occurred in 2010 at Istanbul. Amidst a raging 5-way title battle, the Bulls were running 1-2 and looked set to bring an important result home. But with individual ambitions in mind and Red Bull’s alleged attitude of being deferential to Vettel [but more publicly, of letting their drivers race], Sebastian attempted a pass on Mark for the lead, yet with neither driver willing to give an inch - it resulted in the duo colliding. One DNF, a lost 1-2 and upset egos was Red Bull’s outcome from the day.
The other episode was the infamous “Multi 21” incident, where Vettel disregarded team orders to stay behind Webber and overtook him, thus winning the 2013 Malaysia Grand Prix–a final act of disrespect towards a driver in his swansong year, one who had endured five years of not being treated as a rightful part of his own team and being labelled the ‘second driver’ from all parts of the paddock. It’s no wonder that he doesn’t want to pass on the tradition of getting the short end of the stick from their team or teammate to his Australian “grid-son” (as Piastri is fondly called by users on social media).
While there are striking similarities between how the Australian drivers have been done wrong by team orders, as well as their own teammates, what sets them apart is their team environments. RedBull Racing has for long been known for their cutthroat team environment–having dropped drivers immediately following a few bad performances with seemingly no remorse, and replacing them with ease. McLaren Racing, on the other hand, is regarded as a team with a chummy and familial environment, reflecting in how their current drivers portray themselves, as individuals as well as teammates in the public eye–especially the Carlos Sainz-Lando Norris duo, popularly known as CarLando. At the risk of calling this team camaraderie a facade, it is clear that only one of the two teams can set apart their attitude towards racing from their off-track relationships within the team–a quality visible through their performances in the last decade.
McLaren isn’t new to rivalries between their drivers, having seen one of the sport's greatest rivalries between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost nearly 40 years ago. What is different this time is how they’re managing it–for the first time in years, McLaren has a real shot at the championship, but they seem to be succumbing to pressure, both from within the team as well as from the outside. This pressure has become apparent in the way that the drivers, as well as CEO Zak Brown, have been carrying themselves in the eyes of the media. Norris, particularly, has started to show a completely new side of himself–one that many claim is a result of his recent wins. Overly sarcastic comments, digs at fellow drivers, and accusations of foul play have become a common occurrence in his interviews. Those aside, Norris hasn’t been able to resist the occasional snark on his radios, or during podium ceremonies, with reports of Norris ignoring Piastri during the podium celebration of his maiden win.
Despite all this, it is important to remember that at the end of the day, Formula 1 is a professional sport where athletes will be competitive–especially when success in their sport is not too far out of reach. A switch-up in how they portray themselves is not uncommon, seeing as Max Verstappen was painted as a villain after winning his first Championship in 2021. Being seen as the less likeable team in the sport may be new for McLaren, but to be able to take themselves seriously, as well as to be taken seriously, competition–with a hint of snark–may be just what they need to return to their roots as Formula 1 legends.
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