F1
McLaren has 'a lot to learn about consistency', says Verstappen
© Florent Gooden / DPPI
McLaren Did she shoot herself in the foot in 2024? Too late to establish a clear hierarchy between Lando Norris et Oscar piastri and to give team instructions, did the British team waste the opportunity to fight for the Drivers' title? That's what Max Verstappen, in any case. The now four-time world champion of Formula 1 believes that the English team mismanaged its two drivers during the season, particularly from the summer when the McLaren MCL38 was certainly the best car on the grid.
If McLaren tried to impose rules between its two drivers after the summer break with the famous "Papaya Rules" - heard for the first and last time in Italy, where Oscar Piastri had gotten the better of Lando Norris from the start - the Woking team finally backtracked and resolved to give priority to the British driver to help him in his quest for the world title... without success. The delay accumulated at the start of the season and the missed opportunities during the championship deprived Lando Norris of a duel with Max Verstappen until the last Grand Prix, the Dutchman having won his fourth crown in Las Vegas.
McLaren « should have managed [its drivers] more efficiently"
For the pilot Red Bull, McLaren's driver management has not been ideal, far from it. "You have the right to fight, that's fine. But what's the point? They should have handled it more effectively as a team, says Max Verstappen in an interview with Viaplay. They clearly had a very good car this year, but they had a lot to learn in terms of consistency. They got good results for the Constructors' title, but for the Drivers' championship they could have been better prepared."
When asked if McLaren missed any opportunities in 2024, Max Verstappen answered without hesitation: “Absolutely, 100%.”, then estimating that Lando Norris could have been world champion this season despite the gap between the two drivers at the end of the championship. The Dutchman and the Briton were the two main protagonists of this 2024 campaign, with captivating and sometimes fierce duels on the track. In this same interview, the Red Bull driver was notably questioned about the episode of the Dutch Grand Prix, where he suffered a bitter defeat against his English rival… who had teased him on the radio by coming out with his favorite expression: “Simply lovely!”.
"You have to take it as a compliment. If others start copying you, that's a compliment, answers the Dutchman. I think they really wanted to beat me in Zandvoort to make a statement and to destabilize me mentally. But I don't care about that kind of thing. I'm just disappointed that I missed the race. Of course, I would have liked to win in Zandvoort, but mentally it doesn't affect me. Even a quote like that doesn't bother me. It doesn't matter, I'll let it go, I'm already focused on the next race. You have to stay calm; if you let these things get to you, you'll start making mistakes."
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Dorian Grangier
A young journalist nostalgic for the motorsport of yesteryear. Raised on the exploits of Sébastien Loeb and Fernando Alonso.
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Lucas Paul
17/12/2024 at 05:31 a.m.
Max is absolutely right, this is the big problem at Mac Laren! Let's hope they learned their lesson for 2025?
Yves-Henri RANDIER
17/12/2024 at 01:02 a.m.
It's a bit easy, in hindsight, to give lessons to others in terms of driver and team management, especially when you destroy and take malicious pleasure in systematically humiliating your teammate.
vincent moyet
17/12/2024 at 11:48 a.m.
If McLaren could hope to win races this year given their progress, they probably didn't expect to be able to play for the title already. And the hesitations in the middle of the season show that they weren't prepared for it, any more than their drivers who hadn't yet crossed the decisive threshold of the first victory. Afterwards, confining Piastri to the role of 1nd driver from the start was taking the risk that a nugget of this caliber would be courted elsewhere (Mercedes?). Furthermore, reducing the 2nd driver to the rank of a despised foil like at RBR, we can see what result that gave: a demotivated driver and a constructors' title quickly lost. Verstappen even allowed himself to voluntarily make his team lose 2nd place to save his title... Ultimately his analysis lacks depth and is still just a demonstration of arrogance.