McLaren had a challenging 2009 season after a very poor start that included a serious breach of conduct, the team finishing third in the championship and driver Lewis Hamilton coming fifth in the drivers' championship and the lacklustre Heikki Kovalainen finishing in 12th position.
The replacement in 2010 of Kovalainen by the 2009 drivers' world champion, Jenson Button, certainly improved the 'feel' of the team's performance. The car was off the pace of the Red Bull, and Fernando Alonso driving for Ferrari illustrated that a slightly slower car combined with a driver with incredible skills is a major threat; nevertheless, McLaren seemed to be getting back to winning ways. Hamilton and Button finishing the season in fourth and fifth place, may read as though McLaren had a terrible season, but it was very competitive at the top of the standings. McLaren's second place in the Constructors was clearly a disappointment to a team that always sets out to win, but they will no doubt be comforted that they bested Ferrari into third place, and the new driver line up worked very well together.
Some had predicted that an all-British driving team, the 2008 champion Hamilton and the 2009 champion Button, would cause dissent and disharmony in the team, that two champions in the same team would be a clash of egos. Perhaps unsurprisingly for any team of which Jenson Button is a member the drivers got on well and seemed to cooperate with each other, it was a pleasant contrast to the childish boorish antics of Mark Webber at Red Bull.
A primary performance indicator for any driver is their finish position relative to the team 'mate'. Hamilton beat Button, but the performance gap was significantly less than many had anticipated. What become once more apparent was that if Button was happy with the car set up he was a match for Hamilton, but if the set up was not perfect for his style he seemed to struggle, whereas Hamilton seemed to be able to adapt to the car.
McLaren Facts and Stats
| Base: | Woking, Surrey, UK | |
| Team Principal: | Martin Whitmarsh | |
| Technical Chief: | Paddy Lowe & Neil Oatley | |
| Drivers: | Jenson Button (No. 3) | |
| Lewis Hamilton (No. 4 ) | ||
| Chassis: | McLaren MP4-26 | |
| Engine: | Mercedes-Benz | |
| Tyres: | Pirelli | |
| First Season: | 1966 | |
| 3rd Most Constructor Championships: | 8 | 74, 84, 85, 88, 89, 90, 91, 98. |
| 2nd Most Driver Championships: | 12 | Emerson Fittipaldi (74), |
| James Hunt (76), | ||
| Niki Lauda (84), | ||
| Alain Prost (85, 86, 89), | ||
| Ayrton Senna (88, 90, 91), | ||
| Miki Hakkinen (98, 99), | ||
| Lewis Hamilton (08) | ||
| 2nd Most wins (all-time): | 169 | (Until end of season 2010) |
| Most wins in a season: | 15 | 1988 (Shared with Ferrari) |
| 2nd Most all time podiums: | 452 | (Until end of season 2010) |
| 2nd Most pole positions: | 146 | (Until end of season 2010) |
| 2nd Most points: | 3835.5 | (until end of season 2010) |
| 2nd Most fastest Laps: | 143 |
(Until end of season 2010) |
McLaren was founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren, and with 43 wins was the most successful team competing in the Canadian American Challenge Cup (Can-Am) race series that ran from 1966 to 74. The team's debut in F1 was at the Monaco GP in 1966, with Bruce McLaren at the wheel. The team's first win with appropriately Bruce McLaren driving was in 1968 Belgian GP, they won four more GP in the 1960's.
In 1970 Bruce McLaren was killed in a crash whilst testing a car for the Can-Am series. The team continued under the direction of Teddy Mayer, and in 1974 the team had huge success with Emerson Fittipaldi winning the Driver's Championship and the team the Constructors'.
The wonderfully charismatic James Hunt won the Driver's Championship in 1976, in a season remembered for Ferrari's Niki Lauda's horrific crash and resulting serious burns at the Nurburgring, and his return to racing and his retirement from the Japanese GP resulting in Hunt winning the championship from Lauda by just one point.
The team struggled in the late 1970's, but following a take- over by Ron Dennis, a young dynamic leader, the team's fortunes took a decided upswing. Dennis hired the exceptionally talented designer John Barnard who went on to develop a revolutionary carbon fibre composite chassis. Dennis secured strong financial backing for the team and in 1984 with Niki Lauda and Alain Prost driving, the team won Drivers' and Constructors' titles. (Lauda took the Drivers' championship by a half point from Prost). In 1985 Prost beat Lauda to the Drivers' title and the team won the Constructors. Prost won the title again in 1986.
Ron Dennis illustrated his strategic thinking in 1987 by switching engine suppliers to Honda and signing the brilliant and gifted Brazilian Ayrton Senna to partner Prost. In 1988 McLaren were at the very zenith of their dominance winning 15 of the 16 races, taking the Constructors title with ease and Senna winning the Drivers' championship.
Senna and Prost did not get along, each feeling the other should be the number 2 driver, each brilliant but with very different personality, they did not keep matters off the track and in the aftermath of a broken promise between them at the 1989 San Marino GP, Senna and Prost collided in Suzuka, handing that year's title to Prost, with the team winning the Constructors title again. Subsequently, Prost left the team for Ferrari.
Senna and McLaren won the titles again in 1990 and 91, but other teams particularly Williams had closed the performance gap, and with a change of engine suppliers McLaren struggled.
In 1995 Mercedes became engine supplier and despite some driver issues the performance began to improve, and with the recruitment of designer Adrian Newey in 1996 as technical director and promotion of Mika Häkkinen from test driver, Dennis engineered both the Drivers' and the Constructors' titles in 1998 with and Häkkinen securing a second title again in 99.
The Ferrari of Michael Schumacher was dominant in 2000, 2001and 2002. Kimi Räikkönen who had taken over from Häkkinen came within two points of beating Schumacher in 2003, but in 2004 Schumacher won 13 of the 18 races, and took the title again.
The 2007 season promised much, double world champion Fernando Alonso had joined the team alongside F1 rookie Lewis Hamilton, and Vodafone had became the main sponsor committing substantial funds. Alonso and Hamilton were evenly matched on the track, both winning four races, however, relations between the two, and Alonso's relationship with the team deteriorated throughout the season. Hamilton led the Drivers' championship heading into the final race in Brazil, with Alonso also still in contention, four points adrift. Alonso finished third, but Räikkönen driving a Ferrari won and clinched the title. Hamilton had a challenging race with car and driving problems, finishing 7th meant that he and Alonso had 109 points each just one behind Räikkönen.
Off the track it was a terrible season for McLaren when found guilty of obtaining a rival team's [Ferrari] technical information and after two hearings by the governing body, the team were disqualified from the Constructors' championship and fined US$100 million less the FOM income lost as a result of the points deduction. Alonso and McLaren agreed to terminate the contractual agreements with neither party paying a financial penalty.
2008 was once again a close season, with Lewis Hamilton winning five races to Massa's (Ferrari) six, however, Hamilton had slightly better reliability and finished the season one point ahead of Massa. Hamilton became the youngest ever, and first McLaren driver in 9 years to win the Formula 1 Driver's Championship. McLaren finished second in the Constructors to arch rivals Ferrari.
The 2009 season for McLaren was dominated by the aftermath of what became known as Liagate. A team official and Lewis Hamilton were found to have lied to race stewards at the Australian and Malaysian GP. The team finished the season in a distant third, but did beat (just) Ferrari. Hamilton was fifth in the driver standings.
Potentially the most significant event for McLaren and F1 occurred at the end of the season with Mercedes decision to purchase debut-season driver and Constructor' championship-winning Brawn GP. The purchase means that Mercedes will divest their 40% stake in McLaren by 2011. However, Mercedes will continue to supply engines to McLaren until 2015. Mercedes working with Ross Brawn will be a potent combination on the grid, and the loss of Mercedes is likely a blow to McLaren.
Afterabc's opinion: McLaren
Reputations for integrity, sportsmanship and honesty that may have taken years to establish can be destroyed very quickly when a team principle and or a driver lose the ability to distinguish between sporting advantage gained by use of legitimate means, to adopting a trench mentality that corrupts judgements and results in practises and actions that are not just outside of the rules of the FIA but break faith with the sporting ethos of F1. McLaren's involvement in spying on Ferrari, not only resulted in a record fine imposed by the FIA of, US$100 million less the FOM income lost as a result of the points deduction, and the stripping of all Constructor points for the 2007 season, it also put into dark shadow the teams long history of achievement. Much has been written about the financial pressures of F1, and the need for a big team, such as McLaren, to win, and how such would induce naturally honest men to act in such disgracefully appalling way, such is just not borne out by the actions of most in the sport who act with integrity. The FIA demonstrated considerable judgement in imposing such a large fine, but allowing the team to continue to race.
The enormity of the FIA fine should have acted as a suitable deterrent to the team and encourage suitable attitudes and behaviour, sadly in 2009 some at McLaren demonstrated once again a complete disregard for even the basics of sporting behaviour.
Prior to the 2009 race in Australia Lewis Hamilton had built a well deserved reputation as an excellent driver and decent young man. His very public disputes with Fernando Alonso, whilst disquieting were seen by most as a clash of two big egos, both drivers were thought as much to blame.
Hamilton's World Driver Championship victory in 2008 certainly proved his great driving skills and he was lauded as a potential F1 great.
Hamilton's decision to lie to race officials in what became known as "Liagate" was very sad for any Hamilton fan and once again exposed the McLaren team to the suspicion that they lacked integrity. The background to Liagate started as a simple racing incident: Following a crash in the Australian GP the safety car was introduced, Jarno Trulli, in third, slithered briefly over the kerb and Hamilton passed him, as was his right. The McLaren team thought Hamilton had made a mistake in passing Trulli when in safety car formation, so they radioed Hamilton and told him to let Trulli pass. Hamilton duly did so. The McLaren team then realised that they had made a mistake, so after the race they told the race stewards that Trulli had overtaken Hamilton unilaterally, illegally, against Hamilton's will. The stewards took the word of Hamilton and Sporting director Dave Ryan at face value, world champion drivers and sporting directors don't lie to race officials. The entirely innocent Trulli was given a 25-second penalty, which took him from third to twelfth, while Hamilton went from fourth to third, and a place on the podium.
The race officials discovered the deceit, they had clear proof from the video and tape recordings of the radio messages that Hamilton and Ryan had lied. Ryan was fired, team principal Ron Dennis later resigned from all his F1 McLaren responsibilities. (Dennis had announced at the start of the season he was stepping back from day to day control of McLaren F1). Hamilton admitted that he had lied, and said he was "misled", but few, if anyone, did not conclude that Hamilton could have refused to lie. The FIA issued a three-race suspended ban to McLaren for bringing the sport into disrepute after lying to stewards at the Australian and Malaysian GP.
The excuse exercised by Hamilton's protagonists of his youth is silly; he was not 13 years old and was at the time World Drivers' champion. This was not a heat of the moment racing action, but an act of cold calculation after the heat of battle. It is hard to imagine former British World Driver champions; Hawthorn, Graham Hill, Clark, Surtees, Stewart, Hunt, Mansell or Damon Hill deciding to mislead race officials in similar circumstances.
Time moves on and Hamilton did much in 2010 to rebuild his shredded reputation; his decision to replace his manager/father increased the circle of people that seemed to better influence the direction of his decisions.
The departure of Ron Dennis, the man credited by most as the architect of the commercial and racing rise of the team and sadly also by some as the purveyor of the ethical malaise that characterised the team, helped to build confidence in the doubters' minds that the dark period is past.
Jenson Button surprised many with his decision to leave Brawn (now Mercedes) and join McLaren to race alongside Hamilton for the 2010 season. However, for Jenson to drive for an iconic British team with a real potential of developing a championship winning car was an understandably an attractive opportunity.
Lewis Hamilton remains in most aficionados' minds the marginally better of the two McLaren drivers; however, it is not contentious to state that they are the strongest pair on the grid. Ferrari and Red Bull each have a very strong driver (Alonso and Vettel) paired with a significantly weaker partner (Massa and Webber). Such should mean that if McLaren can produce a competitive and reliable car they are best placed to regain the Constructors title in 2011. However, F1 is rarely so logical and straightforward, and 2011 should again prove to be a very competitive season, with the top four teams, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes all very well financed and able to identify key areas of design improvement over 2010.
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