Team analysis | Will McLaren rejoin the top of F1 in 2022?

F1 season of 2021

With a win and four other podium finishes in 2021, one could argue that McLaren managed to make a big step forward in 2021. The 1-2 in Italy was particularly impressive, of course, with Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris side by side on the podium. Of course somewhat helped by the crashes of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, but the Australian was already leading before that crash.

Still, McLaren went into the winter break somewhat disappointed, as it had lost the battle for third place to Ferrari. The Italian team had come alongside with a strong second half of the season, and with a weak last few races McLaren could not make up that deficit.

The loss of Carlos Sainz was also more noticeable than expected in 2021. Everyone assumed for a while that Ricciardo would take over the leading role at McLaren, but the Australian was driven around the ears by Norris for a year. He scored too few points to really serve McLaren in the battle with Ferrari.

Winter test

After the winter test in Barcelona things looked good for McLaren. After Ferrari and Mercedes the team drove the most laps and was also fast. The car still suffered from porpoising, but more teams had this problem. The team from Woking went to Bahrain with a lot of confidence, but ran into problems.

Of all the teams, McLaren drove the least kilometers in Bahrain, and that was caused by a problem with the brakes. This first came to light during the first day of testing in Bahrain, but was not solved during the three days either. Norris was thus condemned to some short and quiet runs.

The mood changed at McLaren, which besides the lack of data also saw that the car had not made a huge step forward in terms of porpoising either. With a week to go to the first Grand Prix, there is still a lot to be done.

McLaren in 2022

At the British team, little has changed compared to 2022. The car is still orange, Ricciardo and Norris are still the drivers and also the management is unchanged. For the management, however, 2022 is an important test. Andreas Seidl and James Key lead this team and with the new regulations, they have a chance to show what they can do.

In addition to an opportunity for management, it is also an important year for Ricciardo. The Australian was beaten by his younger teammate in 2021 on all counts, and by a nice margin as well. The qualifying duel was lost (7-15) with an average difference of 0.192s per qualifying session. The race duel he also lost 5-15 and Ricciardo scored 45 points less than Norris. His victory in Monza therefore disguised much.

Expectations

That the picture can change quickly in this phase McLaren did show with the difference between the test weeks in Barcelona and Bahrain. After the first test week, the team from Woking was listed as one of the favorites, after Bahrain they seem to be useless. The truth will lie somewhere in the middle.

The test weeks have in any case shown that McLaren, provided the car stays in one piece, has a car that is fast over one lap. The brake problems could not be solved in Bahrain, but a lot can happen in a week. It is not expected that McLaren will still be struggling with these problems at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

However, the team has not shown enough or been able to collect enough data to belong in the ranks of Ferrari, Red Bull Racing, or Mercedes. Those three teams have shown more of themselves in the test weeks and are expected to be top three. If McLaren solves the problems, it might be able to join this trio.

Read the previously published team analyses here:

Alpine

AlphaTauri

Aston Martin

Williams

Alfa Romeo

Haas F1