After a rapid decline and a few years in the doldrums, McLaren are on the rise again – fighting for third in the Constructors’ Championship with Ferrari and aiming to move back to the very front when the new regulations kick in next season. How high were the highs? How did they fall? And how have they risen up again?
McLaren were a behemoth of Formula 1 for the best part of four decades, largely thanks to Ron Dennis and his infamous, meticulous attention to detail.
Dennis took charge of an ailing McLaren team in 1980 and turned them into champions in just four years. Whilst not the outright fastest car in 1984, anything as fast as the McLarens often fell apart and anything as reliable usually finished behind.
They would claim further titles in the following two years and, when the Williams-Honda partnership proved to be the class of 1987, Dennis lured the Japanese marque to leave Williams and join them. He also hired a certain Ayrton Senna. Thus ensued the most dominant season the sport has ever seen as McLaren won 15 of the 16 races.
The mid-90s saw something of a transitional period for the team, before Dennis stole from Williams again – this time, it was Adrian Newey – and the design genius led the now silver McLarens to back-to-back championships in 1998 and 1999. That would prove to be the final truly successful era of Dennis’s reign, however.
The only title they have won, so far, in the 21st Century is Lewis Hamilton’s maiden drivers’ title in 2008. By rights, 2007 should have been a double-championship year for them, but the eccentric character of Dennis is a double-edged sword and that second edge would contribute to the Spygate dramas.
Whilst his peculiarities undeniably produced much success, they also meant he lacked flexibility and had a relentless self-assurance that sometimes prevented him from seeing the bigger picture.
Fernando Alonso had been promised lead driver status upon his arrival at McLaren, but once it became clear that Hamilton – who Dennis had nurtured since the age of 12 – was just as good, Dennis went back on his word and set off the chain of events that would end up costing McLaren $100 million. Just as with Senna and Alain Prost before, Dennis’s lack of empathy was a factor in the damaging decline of the warring duo’s relationship.
After a period of Red Bull domination, during which McLaren usually had a fast but unreliable car, came the hybrid era.
It started well with a double podium in the opening race, but that would prove to be McLaren’s final podium for over five years. As Mercedes took command of Formula 1, McLaren slipped further and further from their perch.
Dennis stated his belief that “customer teams will never be able to win the championship” and so ended ties with Mercedes and brought about a reunion with Honda; the nostalgic partnership would prove to be a story of style over substance and sentimentality over success, though.
McLaren’s entitled attitude under Dennis cost them greatly as they blamed Honda for all their issues and the once great constructor fell to a nadir of ninth in the 2017 Constructors’ Championship. A switch to Renault the following year showed that it was, in fact, McLaren’s design philosophy which caused significant straight-line speed issues and, to add insult to injury, Red Bull would go on to win a grand prix with Honda power at just their ninth attempt.
The blame culture and bland, grey precision in Dennis’s operations was arguably becoming outdated compared to the party atmosphere at Red Bull and the stereotypically efficient but, nonetheless, fun and blame-free approach adopted by Toto Wolff and the entire Mercedes operation.
The levels to which Ron Dennis’s forensic, quixotic approach extended are mind-boggling, and best surmised by his former employee: “One of the best ways to upset Ron Dennis is to sit down in his office, where he’ll usually have a few piles of papers neatly stacked on his desk, and just tip one of those piles by a few millimetres, knowing he’ll then focus on that pile for ages, because he won’t be sure whether you’ve straightened it or made it crooked”, Newey says.
“To me the new building was oppressive in its ordered greyness. Reminiscent of something from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, it featured rows and rows of desks with nothing out of line. Built by the Empire. Not an environment in which I, among others, found it easy to be creative.”
“When we first moved in, we weren’t even allowed glasses of water at our desk, and absolutely no tea or coffee or personal effects. Somebody pointed out that it was probably illegal to deny workers water at their desk, so he had to relent on that, but not on the tea or coffee, and as far as personal effects went, you were allowed one family picture on your desk but it had to be stored in a drawer overnight.”
For all his success, having taken McLaren from a scruffy industrial estate in Woking to the futuristic, Norman Foster-designed Technology Centre, Dennis’s time seemed to be drawing to a close.
He would eventually ‘quit’ after being told by fellow shareholders that he had to give up his position as chairman and chief executive of McLaren Group.
With that, McLaren set about building a new legacy. They instantly chose to eschew the previous ‘Predatory Grey’ livery, in favour of incorporating the papaya orange historically associated with the team. It has taken some time but the new approach, led by a passionate and enthusiastic CEO in Zak Brown, is beginning to show dividends.
2019 saw McLaren outperform Renault – their current engine supplier, no less – to claim their best result since 2012, with fourth in the Constructors’ Championship. The business side of things is flourishing too, with a car now decked out with major sponsors such as Coca-Cola and Dell. Whilst their driver line-up also reflects their new values; Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris are fun-loving and have a light-hearted, harmonious relationship, but are equally – of course – very quick.
Norris is fast becoming one of the most popular drivers on the grid and has emphatically shown his progress on the track at the start of 2020. A maiden podium at the opening grand prix was a pleasant surprise and another flying finish one week later, moving up from eighth to fifth in the final two laps, has led to the ‘Last-lap Lando’ nickname. Meanwhile, Sainz came agonisingly close to taking a maiden victory – and McLaren’s first for eight years – at the chaotic Italian Grand Prix.
The team from Woking seem to be on the up and will be hoping to take advantage of the new regulations in 2022 to take that next step. In the meantime, they have a certain Daniel Ricciardo joining them next year, so things are unlikely to get dull any time soon…
