McLaren Crowned Constructors’ Champion in Singapore
McLaren secured their second consecutive Formula 1 constructors’ championship at the Singapore Grand Prix. The team successfully defended the title with Sunday’s result, where Lando Norris finished on the podium and Oscar Piastri, leader of the drivers’ championship, finished in fourth place. McLaren’s dominant season has turned the championship into a formality since the summer break in August. The team has achieved 12 victories this year, seven of which were 1-2 finishes. The team hasn’t won a drivers’ championship since Lewis Hamilton’s title in 2008, but both drivers are fighting to win it this year. Piastri leads Norris in the championship by 22 points after Singapore, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen 63 points behind Piastri in third place. McLaren’s transformation has been one of the most remarkable stories of the modern Formula 1 era. When CEO Zak Brown took over in 2016, McLaren was in a failing partnership with Honda and regularly failed to progress beyond the first qualifying session.
The team principal, Andrea Stella, hired the following year, has been a key piece in the puzzle for McLaren to displace Red Bull as the leading team on the grid. After the race, Stella said: “It’s an incredible emotion, I want to share it with the team and thank them for the incredible work. Even with six races to go, which is incredible, but that’s thanks to the great work that has been done at McLaren.” Former Red Bull designer Rob Marshall has also played a significant role in overseeing the class-leading cars of the last two years. Drivers Norris and Piastri are tied to McLaren long-term, until at least 2027 and 2028, respectively.“Pretty impressive,” Brown said of the back-to-back titles after the Singapore Grand Prix. “An incredible team here, an incredible team back at the factory, all the men and women have done an incredible job. The leadership that Andrea [Stella] has provided to the race team, the entire leadership team, our owners, our shareholders, it’s a team effort and it’s pretty impressive to go from one title to another, it’s been a while since we did that.”
Zak Brown
