Departures: the key to McLaren's success this season?

Remember, last year, a statistic stuck to the skin of Lando Norris in the first Grands Prix of the season. The Briton was often mocked for his inability to maintain the advantage of his pole position on the first lap of a Grand Prix. It was not until the Singapore Grand Prix, where he secured his 5th pole of the 2024 season, that he was able to stay in the lead before the end of the first lap. Before that, the Englishman regularly struggled on his starts, particularly against Max Verstappen, which cost him time and therefore positions on the track.

McLaren, good starts for big victories

During the winter, McLaren has worked a lot on this specific point, whether with its two pilots or on its car, the MCL39, to make it more comfortable at the start. And so far, this work is paying off. In Australia and China, McLaren has always maintained its pole position advantage, with Lando Norris in Melbourne and Oscar piastri in Shanghai. "The start of our two drivers was excellent, did not fail to emphasize Andrea Stella, Team Principal of McLaren, from Viaplay after the Chinese Grand PrixLando gained a position. Oscar had a very good start from pole position. From a start point of view, we seem to be in a better situation than last year. We need to maintain this trend.

While not everything was perfect – Oscar Piastri lost a position in Australia and was almost caught out by George Russell at the first corner in China – McLaren can be satisfied with having rectified this in 2025, and the starts have become one of the keys to their success. Because a good start means maintaining a leading position… and leading the race means better tire management. The Chinese meeting was the perfect example: during the Sprint, the MCL39s struggled more on their tires in traffic, while in the race, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were able to manage their cars better with free air at the front. If George Russell had taken the lead at the first corner, who knows: surely the McLarens, in the dirty air, would have been more demanding on their tires.

"I hope we will have more starts at the front of the grid and that we can consolidate the good performance of the car, said Andrea Stella after his team's two consecutive pole positions to start 2025. Departures are one of the most important things in Formula 1, so that's another area where we have to check what we're doing and make sure we're on top of it." 

Concerns about reliability?

In China, it wasn't the starts, but reliability that almost failed McLaren. In the closing laps, Lando Norris suffered a brake problem, and lost nearly seven seconds in the final two laps trying to reach the finish. George Russell came close to overtaking his compatriot in the final corners. A rare problem, especially for McLaren, which, let's not forget, achieved the feat in 2024 of not (officially) retiring from any Grand Prix this season.

"First and foremost, we must ensure that these kinds of problems do not happen again, as they jeopardize such an important result for the team, said the Italian leader regarding the problem encountered by Lando Norris. So we have some work to do in terms of reliability. We had very good reliability results last year, but this year we came close to failure twice in both races. So we definitely need to address that issue." For the moment, after two Grands Prix, everything is going well for McLaren, leader of the Constructors' Championship with 78 points.

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