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McLaren uses Vettel as an example to beat Max Verstappen in 2024
McLaren are getting stronger and stronger and look like they still have a good chance of winning the constructors' world title this season. The drivers' title seems out of sight, but nothing is impossible in Formula 1. McLaren team boss Andrea Stella knows that.
Still 42 points behind Red Bull Racing, it has been clear for some time that McLaren is seriously competing for the world drivers' title. McLaren has the better car and, unlike Red Bull, two drivers who qualify well every weekend and perform well in the race.
The drivers' title is a trickier story. Max Verstappen is 78 points ahead of Lando Norris and has a 110-point lead over Oscar Piastri. A big gap, but if McLaren can even grab pole position at a circuit like Zandvoort, where they have rarely been competitive in the past, it bodes well.
Do McLaren still believe in the world title?
"I think the Drivers' Championship is something that, rather than us being determined to say we need to fight for it, we try to do our best every single weekend. The distance numerically between Lando and Max is big, so in order to realistically keep being in contention for the championship, it means that we need to stop beating Max with Lando, or even with Oscar. If Oscar puts together some seasons as we have seen, I remember one in 2013 where Vettel won pretty much all the races after the shutdown, then even Oscar is in contention," Stella revealed in response to a question from GPblog.
"But ultimately what's important is to start delivering results on Sunday, create a better situation from a numerical point of view in terms of points, and then see as a team what is the right approach to the Drivers' Championship. But at the moment we need to finalise and get the points on Sunday, and then I think we will very much assess the situation at every single event."
Stella was referring to Vettel's second half of the season in 2013. Back then, the German racing for Red Bull Racing won all Grands Prix after the summer break. A run of nine wins in a row, a record broken only last year by Max Verstappen. However, the difference between Vettel and the McLaren drivers is that Vettel already had a lead in the world championship, where Norris and Piastri are behind Verstappen.
This article has been written in collaboration with Matt Gretton
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12 September 2024
