McLaren believes it “can be very optimistic” regarding its chances of sustaining a challenge against Red Bull with its 2024 Formula 1 challenger, the MCL38.
McLaren was the revelation of the 2023 F1 season, conducting a mid-season turnaround that saw it go from Q1 eliminations to a regular podium contender.
The team updated its uncompetitive MCL60, starting with a significant upgrade in Austria, having only amassed 17 points before touching down in Spielberg.
Norris finished a fine fourth in Austria and when Oscar Piastri inherited the revised McLaren a round later in Silverstone, the pair completed a 2-4 finish in the British Grand Prix.
From Austria onwards, McLaren scored 285 points, beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to Sprint Victory in Qatar, regularly challenged Ferrari and Mercedes for podiums and leapfrogged Aston Martin to finish fourth in the Constructors’ standings with 302 points to the Silverstone-based squad’s 280.
Aston Martin Technical Director Dan Falows believes Red Bull can be beaten in 2024 and as arguably one of the closest challengers to the reigning champions, McLaren could well be top of the list as the team to dethrone Verstappen and company.
But what does the Woking-based squad think of unsettling the current F1 pacesetters?
“I think at the start of the season my expectation is that Red Bull will keep enjoying some advantage,” Team Principal Andrea Stella told media including Motorsport Week.
“I say this because they didn’t develop the car very much last year, and I would think it’s reasonable to expect that they will have accumulated some knowledge and development last year that will be capitalized on to the 2024 car. That’s my expectation.
“That said, I think that looking at ourselves, looking at McLaren, if – and I say if – we keep the development rate that we had in 2023 that we will hopefully have on the 2024 car, if we can keep this development rate then I think we can be in a strong position.
“Whether that’s enough to challenge Red Bull and the other top teams, who certainly will have made good improvements, we will find out. But we think this is a strong development rate, but as I said now it’s up to us to try and consolidate over time.”
Piastri’s Sprint victory in Qatar was only one of two occasions that a Red Bull didn’t win in racing conditions, the other being Carlos Sainz’s victory for Ferrar in the Singapore Grand Prix.
Whether the Australian can go one better and beat Red Bull in a grand prix in his sophomore F1 season remains to be seen, but Piastri is going in with a positive mentality
“I think you have to have the optimism that we can beat them [Red Bull],” he added.
“I think like Andrea was saying, if we can keep the same rate of development I think we can be very optimistic.”
But, as stated by Fallows’ remarks, McLaren isn’t the only team looking to dethrone Red Bull and Piastri is well aware that McLaren won’t just be looking ahead in 2024, but over their shoulder as well.
“I think we also have to be aware it’s not just Red Bull we are fighting as well, we were in a very intense battle with Mercedes and Ferrari especially in the second half of the year,” Piastri said.
“In terms of championship points in the second half of the season it was incredibly close between us, and we’re all teams that have had a lot of success at various stages. So I think we have to be wary, it’s not just Red Bull that we’re fighting and I think there will be other top teams that are making progress as well.”
Norris amassed a career-best seven podiums in 2023, but his hunt for that elusive maiden grand prix win continues.
Like his team-mate and boss though, Norris isn’t committing 100% to saying Red Bull can be thwarted, but shares his colleague’s collective optimism.
“If you were to say ‘are they beatable?’ I think you would have to say yes, and we are going to want to believe we can say yes, because we were very close at certain times, and at certain times we did beat them,” Norris concluded.
“So the question is can we beat them over a season, because that’s going to be the challenging thing and I think that’s going to be very difficult to do with how well they’re performing. So optimistic… Possible to beat them at certain times? I want to believe so, yep.”
