McLAREN
John Watson knows a thing or two about Woking’s best export, having spent just over five seasons with the team, winning four grands prix. Here’s his assessment
McLAREN IS IN A TRANSITIONAL PHASE AND definitely seems to be on the up again after a period of being relatively uncompetitive. In some ways it’s similar to the situation I was in with the team in the late 1970s and early 1980s, though you can’t make direct comparisons because the technology and expenditure have changed so much – as, indeed, has the whole of grand prix racing. Back then, most teams were effectively privateers running Cosworth engines, without a great deal of the major manufacturer input we see today. It’s far more complex.
It’s hard to know exactly what the pecking order will be as there has been a significant regulatory reset for the new season, but given their respective resources it’s hard to imagine that Mercedes and Red Bull won’t still be at the front or thereabouts. After a decent 2021, I guess McLaren’s objective is to challenge Ferrari in the top three while making the most of any opportunities that arise, as it did last year at Monza. It could have won in Russia, too, but for a touch of inexperience on Lando Norris’s part. But I hear Ferrari has been producing some spectacular horsepower figures, so McLaren might end up trying to defend fourth place in the constructors’.
During the 2010s, McLaren dropped away from the front. It didn’t help that Lewis Hamilton left at the end of 2013, then three years with Honda from 2015 failed to produce the kind of results
