Important year for McLaren: return to the top with the MCL36?

The arrival of Brown

Important years are dawning for McLaren, as after several years of rebuilding, the team now needs to start performing again. Since Zak Brown became involved with McLaren in late 2016 and has been the CEO since 2018, the goal has been clear: McLaren must become world champions again. However, there was a long way to go.

In 2016, McLaren finished sixth among the constructors with Honda, but when the results in 2017 were significantly disappointing and the team dropped back to ninth place, rigorous measures were taken. The deal with Honda was terminated and McLaren switched to Renault engines immediately. The chassis would be good enough to compete for victories, according to the management and Fernando Alonso.

A year later, this proved not to be the case. Although McLaren again finished in sixth place, McLaren suddenly saw that the problems were not only with Honda. Red Bull Racing and Renault were in fact faster with the same engine, so there was also something very wrong with the chassis. This caused a complete restructuring within the team.

New wind at McLaren

In May 2019, Andreas Seidl (as team principal) and James Key (as technical director) started their new jobs at McLaren and this immediately made a positive impact. In addition to the new management, the new driver duo with Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris also brought a position atmosphere, the team climbed to fourth place in the constructors' standings and Sainz achieved the first podium in years for the team in Brazil.

In 2020, the team continued to grow and although Sainz announced at the beginning of the year that he would be leaving for Ferrari, it was still the Spaniard who scored the most points for the team and finished second once. Norris finished third in the first race, but would not score a podium after that.

However, the new management chose a different path in 2021. Mercedes had been appointed as the engine partner for 2021, and despite the fact that the rule changes took a year longer, McLaren chose to integrate the engine anyway into a car that was not allowed to be modified much. This put McLaren at a disadvantage against the competition, but only lost one spot in the rankings to Ferrari.

With the MCL36 back to the top?

After several years of building, the moment has now arrived for McLaren to perform. Although Zak Brown is still tempering expectations a bit, McLaren is simply a top team with a decent budget. They should be competing with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing and with completely new regulations and a strong Mercedes engine in the back there are no more excuses.

At 7pm McLaren will present the new MCL36. The livestream can be found tonight at GPblog and the first pictures will also appear here on the website. So don't miss anything of this important unveiling on Friday.