Ten years later…
Melbourne, it's 16 March 2014, Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button have just been promoted to second and third respectively in the Australian Grand Prix, following the disqualification of local hero Daniel Ricciardo, who had crossed the line in his Red Bull in second place behind Nico Rosberg, in what already looked like an unbeatable Mercedes. It was the dawn of the hybrid era and McLaren was still using a power unit supplied by the German manufacturer, who had clearly done its homework better than anyone else for the start of the season. Maybe its reliability was not yet at 100%, as Rosberg's team-mate Lewis Hamilton had to retire, but McLaren left Australia with 33 points and the lead in the Constructors' championship. It proved to be a flash in the pan and their best result in a year when they would slip down to fifth place. In fact, it was the start of a downward spiral for Formula 1's second most successful team as the following year it would drop to ninth in the standings, a position it repeated in 2017. It would take until 2020 to see McLaren once more among the top three, even if at a considerable distance off the leaders.
Move forward over nine years to 18 June 2023. It's 3.35pm and we are in Montreal where the Canadian Grand Prix has just ended. The McLaren drivers, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have finished 11th and 13th respectively. Between them they have picked up a meagre 17 points from the first eight races, while the team languishes in a mediocre sixth place. Ron Dennis is no longer at the helm, nor is his direct heir, Martin Whitmarsh. The power unit is once again supplied by Mercedes after the Woking team had dabbled with Honda and then Renault. McLaren Racing's CEO is the American Zak Brown, while its Team Principal is an Italian, formerly with Ferrari no less, Andrea Stella.
From then on, the team has been on a roll, with these four people still in the same roles, believing in the path on which they embarked at the end of 2022, even if the start of the season had been pretty poor to say the least. In the remaining 14 races of 2023, McLaren scored 285 points, second only to the all-conquering Red Bull. In the first 17 Grands Prix of 2024, its tally has already reached 475, including two wins for each driver and one historic change at the top of the pecking order. In Azerbaijan, something that had seemed unthinkable not just a year ago, but three months ago even, happened today in Baku. Red Bull no longer leads the Constructors' classification. It's not a miracle, it is down to a methodical approach to the job from the entire team on a progression that has still had some errors along the way, these always embraced positively as an opportunity to learn something.
Baku is definitely not the end of this process. Even if Red Bull is struggling, it will not give up and it will do all in its power to regain the throne. After Monza a fortnight ago, Ferrari has also shown it has title aspirations, given that it is only 51 points behind, only a little more than the 44 points on offer at every Grand Prix, not forgetting that between now and the end of the season in Abu Dhabi there are three Sprint events that are worth a further 58 points.
And what of the Drivers' championship? In Woking, they probably don't even want to think about it, because despite Red Bull's loss of form, Verstappen still has a 59 point lead over Norris, with 206 still up for grabs. Of course, dreaming costs nothing and, every now and again, dreams can come true.
