How 2022’s tough decisions are now bearing fruit for McLaren

Rewind 12 months and McLaren was about to find itself under intense scrutiny heading into Formula 1’s summer shutdown. It’s a time when no team really wants to be in that position, rather than being able to regroup ahead of the second part of the season and focus on aspects other than the week-to-week racing schedule, while the majority of the team earn a well-earned break.But having made the decision to sign Oscar Piastri for 2023 and yet to finalize exit terms with Daniel Ricciardo, the announcement that Fernando Alonso was heading to Aston Martin and Alpine’s attempts to retain Piastri thrust the driver decision into public view.It was a very tough call for Zak Brown and his team to make given the popularity of Ricciardo and the potential that has arrival had come with, but it was one that many could at least understand even at the time. The pressure was on Piastri, who was tasked with proving to be at the very least a match for what eight-time winner Ricciardo had done and then build on his own potential.Almost seems laughable that he was under any pressure now, doesn’t it? Halfway through his rookie season, Piastri is proving not only an ideal wingman for Norris but a strong contender in his own right. Mark Sutton/Motorsport ImagesBut there was another point between last August and now that threatened to provide Piastri and McLaren with an even bigger challenge, as there was a senior leadership overhaul on the horizon. And it’s probably fair at this stage that I repeat how I closed a column back in March, as McLaren announced those changes off the back of its worst start to a season since 2017:“According to Brown, that’s the drivers, the facilities and the personnel all in place. It remains to be seen if it all clicks, but having moved from a technical department run by committee to a more traditional setup and now back again, any potential excuses are running out.”While it would be remiss to judge all of those decisions on the four months that have followed — and rather than against the longer-term target of fighting for wins and championships that McLaren has in place — I’m sure there are few who would disagree that things have gone pretty well since then…Brown was adamant that Andrea Stella was the right man to replace Andreas Seidl, hence the speed of that transition over the winter when Audi came calling for the former team principal. But Stella also saw changes that he felt were imperative when it came to the technical set-up, and the entire team was talking down its chances pre-season as it wasn’t happy with its launch car.With the benefit of hindsight, such an unusual approach was clearly being followed because of the confidence that McLaren had in its ability to improve the situation in the short term. There were directions already being explored that offered significant performance gains, and light could be seen at the end of the tunnel that wasn’t all that far away.James Key’s departure suggested a scapegoat had been found to take the fall for the missed opportunities with the early 2023 car, but his rapid hiring by Seidl at Hinwil suggests there a structure one team principal wants that another doesn’t, and much like Ricciardo’s performances there’s a chance Key finds a better fit back in Switzerland.But none of that detracts from the fact that Stella and Brown had made the right decisions, with both showing a ruthlessness that has led to a rapid recovery.Ricciardo still had a contract for 2023, don’t forget, but rather than miss out on a driver that McLaren felt could be a future star, Brown ended that partnership early to grab Piastri. The same is true of Key as the likes of Rob Marshall and David Sanchez were hired for the evolving technical team.The latter of those changes did build a semblance of pressure, as the finger was pointed at others amid such a disappointing start to the season. It helped Piastri to some extent because expectations had dropped so low that the driver focus was actually on how McLaren intended on retaining Lando Norris moving forward.The most obvious answer is to give him a car capable of fighting at the front, and in the space of two weeks between Canada and Austria it did just that. “We’re Number 2” might not seem the sweetest thing to celebrate, but for McLaren it’s proof of a dramatic turnaround in performance. Michael Potts/Motorsport ImagesOf course the work had been ongoing for a much longer time but the update did not flatter to deceive at the Red Bull Ring. In fact, it was perhaps failing to show its true potential, that was only really seen at the Hungaroring last weekend. On a track with few high-speed corners, and with high track temperatures that had proven McLaren’s weakness earlier in the year, the drivers were still able to lock-out the front row.And who knows, perhaps a double podium was a possibility had Piastri not picked up floor damage that seemed to really hit him in his second and third stints after an encouraging first part of the race.Instead, the rookie has to be content with feeling unfortunate for two weekends in a row — unfortunate in that they “only” yielded a pair of top-five results while Norris picked up back-to-back second places for the first time in his career. Perhaps more tellingly, though, it was also the first pair of podiums McLaren has managed in more than a decade, stretching back to Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button securing consecutive victories to close out 2012.It might have taken nearly 11 years to enjoy such strong weekend results in succession, but in the space of four months, McLaren has gone from a team looking in real trouble to arguably the nearest challenger to Red Bull, and in doing so has been cited as an inspiration to the rest of the chasing pack that such big gains are possible mid-season under these new regulations.By the same token, such fluctuations mean there’s still no guarantee McLaren is there to stay, and it does have a long way to go to truly threaten for wins — let alone championships — while the lack of a works power unit deal in 2026 could also be a hurdle to overcome too. But the past year has shown that when the calls get tough, McLaren tends to get them right.