FORMULA ONE is a sport with many complexities. From different components that make up the cars, most with names and abbreviations, that let’s be honest, no one truly understands, to hundreds of regulations that teams and drivers need to adhere to.
But before we throw you in at the deep end, we are going to walk you through the different teams.
Let’s recap on who we’ve looked at first. Alpine, Aston Martin and Audi have all been covered.
We have also looked at Cadillac, Ferrari and Haas. So, next up is…
McLaren
McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team, based in Woking, UK, is the second-oldest active team and the second-most successful team in Formula One.
Founded by owner Bruce McLaren in 1963, the team did not enter until the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix.
In 1974, four years after McLaren was killed in a testing accident, the team won the first of ten constructors’ championships with James Hunt winning the drivers’ championship.
It would take a whole ten years for the team to win the constructors’ championship, dominating most years up until just before the turn of the century.
Who makes up the McLaren team?
The Team Principal is Andrea Stella.
Stella began his career as a performance engineer for Ferrari’s test team before becoming the performance engineer for the likes of Michael Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso.
He made the move to McLaren in 2015, becoming head of race operations and later race director.
In 2023, he replaced Andreas Seidl as team principal and has led the team to back-to-back constructors’ championships, their first since 1998.
His job is to oversee all the technical, operational and personnel aspects to ensure the team is moving in the right direction.
Ultimately, he has final say over key strategic decisions and represents the team publicly in the media.
Like every F1 team, there are two drivers.
British Lando Norris has been with McLaren since 2017 as a part of their driver development programme, while driving in Formula Two
Norris made his Formula One debut in 2019, finishing 11th in the championship.
He got his first podium a year later during the COVID-19 season at the season opener in Austria
After many near misses, the ever-so elusive race came in 2024.
110 races and 16 podiums had finally led him to reach the top step, something that had long eluded him.
With the first win under his belt, this got the ball rolling.
When the 2025 season came along, McLaren looked to be in the driving seat to win the constructors for the second season in a row.
However, not only did Norris have to compete with four-time winner Max Verstappen, but he also had to compete with his teammate Oscar Piastri.
Ultimately, Norris did win the championship in the end, but after a few mistakes from the team throughout the season, it went down to the last race.
Australian Oscar Piastri is the second driver, making his debut in 2023.
At the Japanese Grand Prix, the Aussie got his first podium finish and got his second at the Qatar Grand Prix later that season.
In 2024, he picked up his first and second race wins, which set him up nicely heading into 2025.
With Piastri and Norris going head-to-head, one driver had to miss out, and that ended up being Piastri on a few occasions.
This led to speculations that, despite not having a clear ‘number one’ driver, McLaren was favouring the Brit.
Unfortunately for the man from Melbourne, he would finish 3rd in the championship; however, a lot of people believe he is a champion in the making.
Their current test/reserve drivers are Italian Leonardo Fornaroli and Mexican Pato O’Ward
McLaren’s constructor championship-winning seasons:
(1974, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 2024, 2025)
Eight drivers have won 13 drivers’ championships for McLaren over the years.
With the new regulations now at play, these first few races could determine what direction the teams go in for the rest of the season.
Next up is Mercedes.
