McLaren assured this Sunday (5), in the GP of Singapore, the world title of F1 builders. At Marina Bay’s street circuit, the team secured the achievement with Lando Norris crossing the finish line in the night race, and Oscar Pistri in a room.
With this, McLaren reached 650 points, and can no longer be reached by Mercedes, second place with 325 points. The result defined the conquest by teams six rounds in advance, equaling record of the 2023 Red Bull.
It was the second year in a row with McLaren’s triumph in the team championship. But unlike what happened in 2024, the driver World Cup should also be with the English team, as Oscar Piostri and Lando Norris have a break from third place.
Pistri leads the Pilot World Cup, now with 336 points, followed by Norris, with 314 points. Red Bull’s four -time Dutch champion Max Verstappen, second in Singapore, is the third in the title race with 273 points. The victory on Sunday was by George Russell of Mercedes, fourth in the World Cup, with 237 points.
The current season’s dominion marks the beginning of a new era to McLaren: the team isolates itself as the second most victorious in F1 history, just behind Ferrari.
Maranello’s team was in every seasons of F1 since the beginning, in 1950. McLaren’s journey began in the 1960s, when driver Bruce McLaren founded his own team. The color of the papaya, characteristic of New Zealand, originates at this time and was adopted by the team in recent years.
Despite not having the legion of fans of its Italian rival, McLaren has a huge tradition in the sport. The first world title came in 1974 with Emerson Fittipaldi. And it was with another Brazilian pilot that the team lived their great phase: Ayrton Senna, world champion in 1988, 1990 and 1991. Also in the history of McLaren are the achievements of Niki Lauda in 1984, and Alain Prost in 1985, 1986 and 1989.
Prost and Senna formed in 1988 what became known as F1’s “Dream Team”, winning 15 of the 16 races that year – only by the Italian GP in Monza for Ferrari after Senna was hit by a few laps to the end.
McLaren and Ferrari’s paths have alternated in recent decades, making the two teams the biggest F1 winners. Ferrari is the biggest winner in the history of the category, with 248 wins. McLaren Soma 201, more than 70 ahead of the third place, Mercedes (131). Already in the ranking of titles, the 2025 causes McLaren, now with ten achievements, exceeds Williams with nine. The leader again is Ferrari with 16.
But it is not only in numbers and statistics that McLaren seeks to match Ferrari. Since taking over the team’s management, Zak Brown in her has printed a more “American” view, favoring the visibility of sponsors and wisdom using the digital world-algo that became more valued in F1 from 2017 with the management of Liberty Media, a American group that acquired the category.
The team based in the English city of Woking was one of the first to bet heavily on tools such as social networks and news brought by new F1 owners, such as the series “Drive to Survive”, aired on Netflix.
“Our team had in 2024 a historic year, not just for the title but for the financial return with the team’s operation at F1,” Zak Brown said in London at the 75th anniversary celebration event.
Last week, Brown confirmed the conclusion of the sale of McLaren Racing (the McLaren Group sports arm) to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in a $ 4.1 billion (R $ 21.9 billion). The negotiation does not take Zak from the team: he has a contract until 2030.
It also has a long commitment another key piece, the Italian Andrea Stella. Ferrari’s engineer for over a decade, he became McLaren head in 2022 and plays an important role in observed growth.
Questioned by Sheet About the secrets of team success, Lando Norris replied, “It’s the people.” “We have a new wind tunnel, but that’s not why our car is winning races now. It’s a small part. It’s the people, all who work in the car, Andrea [Stella] e zak [Brown]. It is the atmosphere that they allow people to have, and our work is better than ever, “he said.
At Ferrari, the fan cheer for the team, not necessarily for the pilot, something that doesn’t happen in other teams. But McLaren intends to break this barrier, creating its own identity with the fans. History for this the team has.
In 2025, the “papaya rules” have worked, in which the two riders are free to play positions, but always thinking about the team first.
Andrea Stella led to McLaren to learn her years in Maranello to build the solid base of seasons 2024 and 2025. Asked by the report on how to compare the two teams, the Italian pointed out similarities.
“I always say that the differences are much lower than one could imagine. Certainly, both teams are characterized by trying to select the best people, looking for the highest standards. In Ferrari you have a lot of external pressure from the media, the attention you get, you have to deal with it. But at the same time, McLaren must say that you get a lot of attention too. teams, “he said.
This year, McLaren got much more solid results in the face of pressure. Ferrari, although in the third place of builders, has its pilots on Thursday (Monegasco Charles Leclerc) and sixth position (Briton Lewis Hamilton, heptacampean, who has not yet got any podium of the season).
