The Story of McLaren’s Collapse and Resurgence in F1

if we go back a decade McLaren were having an absolute nightmare in 2015 they reunited with Honda hoping to rekindle some of their iconic success with drivers like sener and Prost but instead the team fell further than anyone could predicted in that season they scored just 27 points finishing ninth in the championship and only ahead of the marusia team who went bankrupt The Following Season the once great team had become a shadow of its former self but fast forward a decade later and in 2024 they won their first Constructor title in 26 years they reestablished

themselves as undoubtedly a top team in Formula 1 and now on the eve of the 2025 season they are the favorites for both the drivers and Constructor titles this is the story of how an F1 icon was rebuilt from the pits of embarrassment before we get into this video however I want to say a quick word about the sponsor of today's video video cyber ghost VPN 38 million people trust cyber ghost to help them connect them to servers all around the world that allows them to access to geob blocked content that is being taken away

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your information online all you need is one cyber ghost account that can be used on up to seven different devices and by using my link in the description you can get 84% off cyber GH VPN as well as 4 months completely free and on top of that there is also a 45-day money back guarantee if you decide to change your mind so once again a big thank you to cyber ghost VPN Ron Dennis at the beginning of the hybrid era famously said that if you want to win the World Championship you need to be a

manufacturer team due to this self-imposed pressure when McLaren and Honda finally announced that they would be reuniting McLaren actually pressured Honda into entering Formula 1 a year early in 2015 immediately putting them in a difficult situation given that they were a brand new power unit manufa urer Honda's difficulties were then made even worse by the fact that McLaren also enforced very tricky packaging demands on their new power unit for aerodynamic opportunities McLaren had a very slim car that was dubbed a zeroize concept but this was a challenge that was well beyond what Honda were capable

of accomplishing at the time the consequences to all of this is that the brand new Honda power unit was uncompetitive and underdeveloped compared to the Mercedes and Ferrari and even worse it was horrendously unreliable given that McLaren's packaging demands had put enormous strain on the efficiency and cooling of the power units in an era where Formula 1 was just starting to clamp down on how many engine components you could have across the entire season grid penalties for McLaren didn't just become a regular occurrence they became a running joke in the eyes of the fans and

media it didn't take long for the frustration to boil over there was a lot of private criticism behind closed doors and more importantly Alonzo's very public and very damaging comments over the team radio calling their power unit a gp2 engine in Honda's home race in Suzuka although Fernando's frustrations are understandable those comments sour the relationship from very early on Honda has a very Japanese working culture and publicly criticizing them over team radio created a rift between the two companies that would only get worse from there on out in 2016 after a year of development the

performance reliability and results finally did start to improve however for 2017 Honda tried to develop a Brand New Concept more akin to what Mercedes had at the time with a split turbo design and this backfired massively there were numerous reliability issues right from the beginning of preseason testing the performance regressed with McLaren scoring just 30 points across the whole season they continued to take a ridiculous amount of grid penalties and the whole season was basically encapsuled UL ated at the Russian Grand Prix when Alonzo's car broke down on the formation lap Before the Race had

even started by this point the culture clash and blame game were reaching toxic levels to the point where it was very obvious that this partnership was now terminal McLaren and specifically Alonzo made massive claims in the media that they had a race-winning chassis on their hands in 2017 and that they were being held back entirely by Honda in September McLaren formally terminated their contract with Honda opting to use Renault power from 2018 onwards Honda would eventually partner up with Red Bull in 2019 who made a point to build a much stronger working culture between their

two companies and immediately won races during their first season together they eventually went on to win two Constructors and four drivers titles with Max stappen with ironically reliability being one of the key strengths of the Honda power units as I am recording this video before the start of the 2025 season the last time that Max vapen suffered a race ending power unit failure was at the 2022 Australian Grand Prix Honda were by no means blameless in the downfall of McLaren but their success with Red Bull Vindicated that ultimately the majority of the blame was on

McLaren and their corporate culture McLaren needed a proven race-winning power unit and this is exactly what they got in 2018 with Renault rule changes were brought in which banned manufacturer teams from limiting the engine modes that the customer teams could use meaning that the par was now a lot better with Factory teams and given that Red Bull won four races in 2018 with the Renault po unit McLaren themselves admitted going into the season that they now had no more excuses although they had a strong start scoring points eight times in the first five races their

season fell off a cliff they failed to develop their car throughout the year and their self-proclaimed race winning chassis was uncompetitive McLaren in 2018 were humbled behind the scenes there was a massive Technical reshuffle and in the public eye they had to own the fact that their failure over the last few years was not entirely down to Honda as they Tred to make it out once McLaren had some stability and actually identified and accepted the real issues with their own chassis they were finally able to have a Resurgence using Renault power in 2019 they would

go into finish fourth in the constructors Then followed that up by finishing third in 2020 and also scored three podiums along the way with Carlo SS and Lando Norris Renault was always just an interim solution for McLaren and so that is why for 2021 the team announced that they would be reuniting with Mercedes since 2021 the talk about engines has basically become non-existent they were able to power McLaren to their first win for almost a decade in 201 21 and to this day even though McLaren have not been Flawless over the past few years the

Mercedes power unit has never been their limiting factor when they won the constructor's title in 2024 it was the first championship for a customer team in 11 years of the hybrid regulations in a way it was a full circle moment after what Ron Dennis said about needing to be a manufacturer team to win titles but to his defense the landscape and parity between manufacturers and customers is very different in 2025 compared to 2015 and in a way one championship for a customer team in 11 years of these rules isn't exactly a massive success story in

2023 Zack Brown did his due diligence and did consider other power units ahead of the new engine rules in 2026 even going so far as to visit the new Red Bull power trains facility in the end continuing with Mercedes who have proved that they now have a championship winning power unit was obvious and so to maintain the stability and competitiveness inside the team McLaren extended their contract with Mercedes signing a new deal that will take them to 2030 I think it's worth saying that a lack of quality drivers has never been mcclaren's problem or one

of the core values of McLaren throughout their history is that compared to a team like Red Bull for example they have never been afraid to put together the two absolute best drivers on the grid regardless of the potential consequences for 2015 McLaren had Alonzo and Button as their driver lineup and on paper this is genuinely one of the greatest driver lineups that we have ever seen However unfortunately the [Music] uncompetitively so he retired at the end of 2016 going on to be replaced by the reigning gp2 champion stoel vanor and now vanor will forever be

a really talented driver who simply found himself in the right place but at the wrong time and he ultimately became a victim of McLaren's transitional period this was a driver who at the time had a record-breaking Championship winning gp2 season and when Alonzo was injured and on the sidelines for One race vanor in his place finished in the points on his McLaren debut he's a driver who I genuinely believe in a different environment might still even be in Formula 1 today unfortunately he got completely engulfed by the McLaren Alonzo Vortex and his career never really

got off the ground in two seasons alongside Fernando driving unreliable and uncompetitive cars and within a team that was going through absolute turmoil he was totally dominated by Fernando Alonzo himself by 2018 had also had enough his motivation to stay at McLaren was already beginning to wne to the point where Zack Brown even allowed Fernando to miss the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix so that he could compete in the Indie 500 Alonzo's gamble to Lee Ferrari and to be the spearhead for the McLaren Honda Revival had completely backfired in the process he dented his reputation basically

lost his love for Formula 1 and even to this day at Aston Martin he is still basically offering the repercussions of his move to McLaren in 2015 a common theme throughout this video is that 2019 was the single biggest season that in my opinion changed the trajectory of McLaren and took them back onto the path to where they are now for 2019 McLaren had an allnew driver lineup of Carlos SS and a rookie Lando Norris now on paper they were not better drivers than Fernando but they were the drivers that McLaren needed to rejuvenate them

Lando and Carlos brought with them a brand new energy and enthusiasm inside of the team that had kind of been lost after years of negativity although Carlos was relishing his role as the team leader inside of McLaren and him and Lando had that incredible carlando relationship that we all loved when Ferrari Came Calling he just simply couldn't refuse and given how strong that partnership was between him and Lando I think that there is a very interesting alternative Universe where if he doesn't go to to Ferrari he's probably still there at McLaren fighting for titles against

Lando in his place McLaren picked up Daniel Ricardo on a massive contract and in his absolute prime in what seemed like at the time a shire upgrade on Carlos science Ricardo would go on to have a nightmare couple of Seasons that I don't think anyone saw coming the McLaren of this era had very specific driving traits that were incompatible with how Ricardo liked to drive which not only destroyed his confidence but made him uncompetitive relative to Lando speaking about these unique driving traits Ricardo recalled a very interesting interaction that he had with science in 2021

in which he said I bumped into Carlos not too long ago he was like what do you think strange huh and I was like thanks for telling me even though he did give McLaren their first Grand Prix win in almost 10 years in Monza his performances and GAP relative to Lando who had now EST himself as a potential future world champion were becoming untenable when McLaren decided to terminate his contract a year early this was a situation that could have easily continued to spiral out of control in a similar way to what Red Bull have

been going through with their second driver dilemma instead Zack Brown proved just how sharp of a team McLaren had become and quite literally managed to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat McLaren needed to find a driver that would bring stability instant results and more importantly long-term success alongside Norris signing Oscar piastri in the way that they did from right under Alpine's nose wasn't just a message of intent about how capable they were of rectifying their own mistakes but it was also a massive V of confidence by Oscar in McLaren that they were the

right place to be for the future Zack Brown has not exactly been shy about praising his driver lineup as the best on the Formula 1 grid and whether you agreee with him or not whilst there are still key areas in which both of the drivers need to improve they delivered McLaren that constructor's title in 2024 and looking ahead even if say Lando decided to leave McLaren they now have two drivers capable of winning the championship meaning that their driver lineup for the future is basically future proof in case someone decides to leave to reiterate his

faith in both of his drivers Zack Brown has not wasted any time in trying to tie them down to long-term contract s Lando is on a multi-year deal that runs until at least 2026 whilst Oscar has literally just extended even further with McLaren until at least 2028 during the McLaren Honda years to say that there was tension and toxicity behind the scenes would be an understatement someone was always going to have to take the fall for the failure of this project and in 2016 it was announced that Ron Dennis the man who made McLaren the

PowerHouse that it is today would sell his shares in the team and leave at the end of the season although they tried to dress it up and make it look as amicable as possible out of respect for his contributions to McLaren Dennis was essentially pushed out of the team and regardless of what people think history has proven that it was the best decision that they could have made because the man that replaced him to run McLaren racing was Zach Brown when Zach came in right at the end of 2016 as the executive director I think

it's easy to forget and take for granted just what a mess he was walking into the McLaren brand was losing credibility by the day there was political and managerial battles within the team the Honda situation was just continuing to deteriorate and the team's financial situation was on the verge of becoming a disaster it would take a couple of years but once Zack Brown became the CEO of McLaren racing and had ultimate control over all of the decision- making inside of the team that is when things really started to change he effectively overhauled the entire management

within the team injecting it with new blood and a clear structure for the future his first big decision was outing Eric bouier who officially was the racing director since joining back in 2014 but had basically become the team principal rightly or wrongly bouier was emblematic of the previous regime under Dennis and represented a lot of the toxicity and and blame culture that had engulfed the team following bou's departure Zack Brown said the causes are systemic and structural which require a major change from within with today's announcement we start to address those issues head on and

take the first steps on the road to recovery in his place Zack Brown appointed Andrea cidel as the brand new team principal of McLaren starting in 2019 cidel had previously been the team principal of the Porsche hypercar team that had just won three lemon 24-hour races in a row and this was a major appointment by Zach because it was his first senior leader and the man that he handpicked to lead McLaren with a new team principal two new drivers and the baggage of the Honda years behind them 2019 ushered in a new era of McLaren

and under sidol the team finally saw a Renaissance they scored their first podium in Brazil 2019 with Carlos SS Lando wouldn't have to wait too much longer to get his first podium in Austria in 2020 and a year later the team also bagged their first win with a onew in Monza cidel was also instrumental in modernizing the team during this period and pushing for a massive overhaul of the infrastructure with a brand new wind tunnel driver and loop simulator and composite facility speaking about the need for all of these improvements he said as you can

imagine I'm pushing hard to get these different infrastructure measures in place again as quickly as possible or we all know that this will be key in our journey back to the fronts in Formula 1 as we have a deficit there compared to the top teams after a disappointing 2022 season pressure was beginning to mount on Andrea Seidel and this coincided with Audi approaching him to be their CEO ahead of their comeback in 2026 it was an offer that sidol felt he couldn't refuse and so he was replaced as team principal with an internal promotion of

Andrea Stella and now Stella has a long history in Formula 1 with an engineering background starting his career with Ferrari and having worked alongside schumacker renan and Alonzo before joining McLaren in 2015 during this time he climbed up the ranks initially being head of race operations in 2015 then performance director in 2018 racing director in 2019 and then becoming team principal in 2023 the advantage that Stella has had apart from his immense experience in Formula 1 is that because he's been a McLaren right from the beginning of the McLaren Honda era he knows exactly where

the team has been going wrong on both the technical side and also the managerial side if there is one thing so far that has defined the Stellar Reign at McLaren is that his primary focus has been on restructuring and bolstering the technical team just a few months into the job and after a disappointing start of 2023 he dropped James keyi as technical director in his place he set about creating a new structure with what he called the three pillars of car performance which were aimed at tackling the previous issues of miscommunication and a lack of

responsibility of who was in charge of what department and how they contributed to car performance at the top of the pyramid you have Rob Marshall who was acquired from Red Bull as the chief designer and then you have three different technical directors all with their in specific area of focus in Neil howy as the TD of engineering Peter Promo as TD of aerodynamics and Mark Temple as TD of performance speaking of the changes and the need for this kind of non-traditional technical structure Stella said in the structure that we have deployed we want to have

clear leadership in relation to the three fundamental areas to make quick cars in modern Formula 1 which are aerodynamics car concept and Engineering that's not to say that Stella has got everything right but similar to how Zack Brown was able to quickly rectify the Ricardo situation Stella equally has been very proactive when problems have Arisen when McLaren signed David Sanchez from Ferrari and clearly something just didn't work out he ended up leaving after only 3 months because he was deemed too senior for the position that he was occupying and it's that kind of analytical and

proactive approach that I think has been the key to the Zack Brown and Andrea Stella era on top of the technical side McLaren have also refined the operational side of the team as well alongside Red Bull they are consistently one of the fastest and most efficient piit Crews on the grid and in 2023 they set a Formula 1 Pit Stop record with a 1.8 second stop although they did show signs of inexperience and strategical naivity last year when fighting for the title they also proved as the season progressed that they could rise to the challenge

of fighting with Red Bull and the pressure of fighting for wins and titles [Music] consistently when McLaren hit rock bottom in 2015 it was a period where their greatest weakness was probably their arrogance arrogance of the fact that everything was Honda's fault and arrogance in the fact that they thought that they were better than they actually were what Zack Brown has done to turn this team around I think is nothing short of Sensational he has put the right people in place to manage the team he has signed and replaced drivers when problems have Arisen and

especially on the commercial side if you just compare the number of sponsors that they had on their car 10 or so years ago compared to now he has totally transformed the team's commercial power more than anything else Zack Brown has changed the perception of McLaren during the Ron Dennis and McLaren Honda era it was such a cold and corporate team whilst now with the papaya rebranding whilst they still are very corporate in a lot of areas the team has so much more personality the drivers are able to express themselves a lot better there is a

lot more interaction and engagement with their fans and in general it's it's a team that makes you want to believe that they're going to succeed 2024 was tangible proof of McLaren's progression there is still plenty of other challenges ahead with the 2026 role changes on the horizon but in the here and now after more than 10 years McLaren have finally returned to being genuine and consistent title contenders and given that they are the favorites for both titles ahead of the start of the 2025 season they have also Now set themselves up perfectly to challenge for

championships in the years to come well there you have it once again don't forget to check out the link in the description to get a huge discount on Cyber ghost VPN which also comes with a 45-day money back guarantee and once again a massive thank you to them for sponsoring this video if you did enjoy this video then don't forget to subscribe to the channel That would be massively appreciated and I'll see you in the next one n [Music]