The unstated main issue behind McLaren’s 2024 F1 title win

“Wow” – was initially all McLaren crew boss Andrea Stella might muster when Motorsport.com raised the topic of his squad’s bulletproof reliability in Components 1 2024 forward of the Abu Dhabi finale.

A self-discipline as scientific as motorsport does not likely go away room for superstition, however the timing of our dialogue was advanced and so Stella’s temporary incredulity was comprehensible. To be clear, Andrea, we weren’t making an attempt to curse you…

Final Saturday, with McLaren having secured the entrance two spots on the grid for the race finally gained by Lando Norris – and with constructors’ championship rival Ferrari having considered one of its automobiles beginning down in nineteenth because of Charles Leclerc’s varied misfortunes within the Abu Dhabi occasion’s opening two days – the papaya crew was heavy favorite to wrap up this yr’s groups’ prize.

Stella was proper to be cautious. Not solely had McLaren seen Norris slip from a presumably profitable place to nowhere in Qatar every week earlier because of the Briton’s principal race double yellow flag gaffe, however the subsequent Yas Marina Flip 1 contact between Oscar Piastri within the different MCL38 and Max Verstappen highlighted how precarious its place remained till the race ended.

Certainly, with Leclerc rising from nineteenth to eighth on the chaotic opening lap, if Norris fell behind chaser Carlos Sainz within the lead Ferrari over the remainder of the occasion, the 14-point swing would have been sufficient for the Scuderia to steal the constructors’ title.

Additionally at play was how, at this stage, Piastri’s restoration to some extent with tenth was not a given.

However in attending to the end as its drivers did, McLaren capped its first F1 groups’ title in 26 years with a exceptional file in a single crucial space.

This was how, of all of the front-running 4 groups, it didn’t have a single reliability drama that price it factors in 2024.

At Purple Bull, Verstappen retired in Australia together with his brake hearth and misplaced a possible Spa win as a consequence of his engine vitality restoration system problem again in Montreal follow, which means he needed to undergo a grid penalty.

Additionally in Canada, Ferrari misplaced Leclerc to an influence unit drawback, whereas at Mercedes engine drama pressured DNFs for Lewis Hamilton in Australia and George Russell at Silverstone.

Certainly, McLaren solely failed to attain factors on two events this yr – when Piastri was within the wars with Sainz in Miami and when Norris got here off far worse from that crash with Verstappen in Austria.

Technically, as he stopped within the pits seven laps from the end, Norris was categorized on the Purple Bull Ring – in the end guaranteeing a zero DNF file for the constructors’ champion in a yr the place Piastri adopted Michael Schumacher in 2002, Lewis Hamilton in 2019 and Max Verstappen final yr in finishing each single racing lap.

Norris barely squeaked over the 90% race distance threshold required to be categorized in Austria, as he had accomplished 90.1% of the occasion when he stopped together with his MCL38 too broken to proceed after the contact with Verstappen on lap 64.

Stella did – charmingly and in-depth as ever – in the end reply to our enquiry on simply how McLaren had maintained such glorious reliability in 2024.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Picture by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Pictures

His reply recalled his earlier profession expertise working as a efficiency and race engineer at Ferrari, which raised the usual on F1 reliability throughout its run of 5 world title doubles with Schumacher throughout this era within the early 2000s.

“We’re within the place we’re when it comes to the constructor championship, not solely as a result of we now have been capable of realise a automotive that, on common, was aggressive in most circuits, we now have [also] had the drivers which have used this automotive, usually, to the perfect of its potential,” Stella mentioned.

“However positively from an operational standpoint and a reliability standpoint the crew to date have been capable of obtain requirements that in my profession in Components 1, they make me consider my early 2000s years at Ferrari, the place reliability was form of a faith and the requirements have been very excessive.

“In each Components 1 crew, you do not obtain these ends in an unstructured manner.

“That is the results of having invested on this space – operations and reliability – invested cash, invested [in] folks, [and] modified the organisation in relation to how we take care of the reliability and likewise the tradition.

“With this query, you give me the likelihood to make an appraisal of the work and the standard of the work that has occurred on this space.

“However what I say once I speak about reliability in our crew debrief is that I believe it is the worst job in Components 1.

“Since you are at all times nearly as good as yesterday. There is no credit score amassed – as a result of each new session, each new race, can supply a state of affairs, an issue.

“So, the one factor you are able to do is simply keep tremendous targeted, tremendous proactive, and see the place the following drawback will probably be coming from.”