McLaren CEO Zak Brown had already claimed in 2022 that his team would be ready to compete against Red Bull from the 2025 season. But just two years after his statement, the Woking-based team has emerged as the Bulls’ closest championship rivals – and it is looking increasingly likely that McLaren will beat the Milton Keynes-based team this year.

On ESPN’s Unlapped podcast, Nate Saunders reflected on Brown’s claims. At the time, Saunders didn’t believe it was possible, as Red Bull had the advantage and McLaren was struggling in the midfield. “Even then I thought: ‘This is a big task’,” he admitted.

Yet Brown’s premonition has come true in the 2024 season, even before the deadline. Saunders attributes this to the positive impact that the cost cap and aerodynamic testing regulations have had on the latest generation of F1 racing.

He explained: “Our belief – and it was shaken badly this year – was that these (performance) advantages were very difficult to break. That was set in stone for a long, long time. That was the case for years.”

“I think we’re seeing teams being constrained by the cost cap in a positive way. We have teams that spend different amounts of time in the wind tunnel depending on the sliding scale of development.”added the ESPN journalist.

Saunders also praised McLaren for the path they have taken in developing the MCL38. The team won its first Grand Prix of the year in Miami and has since won two more races in Budapest and Zandvoort.

McLaren’s sacrifices for 2023 have paid off this season

The team from Woking started the 2023 season at the Bahrain GP with arguably the slowest car. Thanks to their rapid development, however, they were serious contenders for a podium finish from the Austrian GP onwards.

Saunders explained that McLaren recognised certain strong aspects of their design concept at the time, but they sacrificed them to build a more complete car – and it has done wonders for them in 2024.

However, according to the show’s hosts, the team also has some weaknesses. One such aspect is the way the engineers communicate with the drivers – which suggests a lack of confidence in their own abilities.

“There is still a very strange dynamic when they talk to their drivers on the pit wall. There is still an atmosphere of uncertainty. An atmosphere of indecision,” concluded Saunders. Many experts stressed that this uncertainty could be due to McLaren’s lack of experience, despite the company having been at the forefront for over a decade.