At an eventful 2024 season finale in Abu Dhabi, Formula One team, McLaren Racing finally clinched the World Constructors’ Championship (WCC) title for the first time since Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard in 1998.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend took place on the 6th-8th December. McLaren, although leading the championship, only had a gap of 21 points to their rival- Scuderia Ferrari. This meant that it was crucial for McLaren to execute a perfect race- they needed to choose the best strategies, perform short pit stops, have both drivers qualify high enough to ensure an easy win and podiums, as well as score at least 24 points together to mathematically secure the title.
Two practice sessions occurred on the Friday. Although Oscar Piastri did not drive during the first session, valuable data and strong results were accumulated from all the participating McLaren drivers- principal drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri- and rookie driver, Ryō Hirakawa.
Qualifying took place on Saturday evening, after the third practice session. Based on the practice results, the team was confident that Norris and Piastri would easily qualify in the top two positions on the grid, and they did with Norris starting on pole, and Piastri in second. The, at-the-time, sophomore driver reported that he believed the team was “in a good spot and still confident.”
We’re going to focus on ourselves and try and get the most out of our game, our car that we have, and I guess see where we end up,”(Piastri, 2024.)
However, Ferrari faced some difficulty during the session. Although Carlos Sainz qualified P3, his teammate, Charles Leclerc, only qualified P14, as his strongest qualifying lap was deleted early due to track limits, and a 10-place grid penalty, that was given because the team changed his power unit, sent him to the very back of the grid.
This meant that McLaren had a higher chance of securing the WCC. For Ferrari, this meant a huge recovery drive from Leclerc was required in order to clinch the championship title.
Sunday evening was full of anticipation. For Norris and Piastri, it was making sure they got a perfect launch at lights out and maintain their positions. For Sainz, it was to overtake the McLarens to steal the lead of the race. As for Leclerc, it was to pull off an absolute masterclass and land a podium.
Things did not turn out well for Piastri on the opening lap. The four-time world champion, Max Verstappen, tapped Piastri’s MCL38, dropping the Australian to P19. This spiced up the championship battle as McLaren either needed an overtaking masterclass from Piastri, or they had to solely rely on Norris to maintain his lead to secure 25 points. Leclerc had already made up three places by the first corner, and was up into p8 by the end of the first lap, so the championship fight was only getting tenser.
By lap ten, the Monegasque driver was up another two places. In the meantime, Norris maintained a comfortable lead over Sainz. But Piastri was caught up in another point of contact with former Williams driver, Franco Colapinto. He later served a ten second time penalty in the pits for that. By the time he served his penalty, lap 33, he re-joined the track in p15, eventually finishing the race in p10, winning the last available point.
The British McLaren driver triumphantly crossed the checkered flags after successfully maintaining track position, as well as the team executing a perfect one-stop pit strategy.
“We did it mate. We did it. World champions,” announced Norris’ race engineer, Will Joseph over his radio.
Sainz and Leclerc completed the podium, respectively. Despite their efforts, the double podium wasn’t enough to snatch the championship title.
Although Piastri’s weekend didn’t end the way he had wanted it to, it is still crucial to acknowledge that his wins in Baku and Budapest, as well as his record of scoring points in every single grand prix in 2024 significantly contributed to McLaren’s fight for the championship- in fact, his winning points from Baku moved McLaren up to the lead, ahead of Ferrari, in the standings.
Since McLaren’s victory in Abu Dhabi, they have been nothing short of dominant this season. They currently sit on a lead of 617 points, a large margin of 337 points ahead of Ferrari. The two drivers have accumulated a total of twelve wins, twenty-seven podiums, and nine pole positions this season. Oscar Piastri leads the World Drivers’ Championship at 324 points, with teammate Lando Norris behind him at 293 points. It is said that they will mathematically secure the WCC again if both drivers manage to score a P1-P2 finish in the next race, at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the 19th-21st September.
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