McLaren is hot on Red Bull’s tail – Can they clinch the championship?
Heading into the 2024 season, you’d have been forgiven for thinking the Constructors’ Championship was a foregone conclusion. After all, Max Verstappen’s rise to supremacy has been nothing short of meteoric, and leading up to the midpoint of this season, Red Bull is still riding high on seven wins and an impressive 408 points.
However, eyes are slowly turning to McLaren. The team is starting to close the gap, but to get a shot at clinching the Constructor’s title, McLaren is going to need to make some bold strides in the next few months.
You might have already noticed that many sportsbooks are slicing odds on McLaren to win the season – and you can find more info on Oddschecker to see what we mean – but what should McLaren be doing to cut those odds down even further?
Norris needs to gain regular ground on Verstappen
This is an obvious point to make, but it’s true. Part of what makes Verstappen so formidable is his consistency as a driver. That’s going to make gaining any kind of ground fairly difficult, especially when you consider that Lando Norris will need to score around eight points more per race to get ahead of his rival in Red Bull.
Stranger things have happened, but it’s an unlikely scenario given that Verstappen always seems to eke every ounce of performance out of his car, even on weekends where the team has struggled as a whole. Plus, there’s more to consider when discussing McLaren’s overall chances of overtaking Red Bull.
Piastri and Norris need to keep working together and keep pace
It’s easy to assume that a team’s lead driver – in McLaren’s case, Norris – should be picking up most of the points. With McLaren, this is hardly the case, however. There are 32 points between Piastri and Norris right now, with the former in fourth place in the Drivers’ Championship and the latter in second.
Official F1 standings also show that there is a much bigger gap between Sergio Pérez and Verstappen at Red Bull. The Mexican is seventh at the time of writing, behind both Ferrari drivers and a resurgent Lewis Hamilton.
Therefore, if Norris and Piastri are both able to compete for podiums, they stand a good chance of outscoring Red Bull at most Grands Prix should Pérez continue to struggle when the season restarts.
Keep strategies simple
A common theme in the last few races before the summer break was McLaren’s lack of decisiveness with strategies and communicating with their drivers, culminating in the debacle that unfolded in Hungary where Norris was expected to hand the lead back to Piastri even though the Brit was handed the undercut. No doubt the incident will have caused friction in the team and possibly between the two drivers, who must now work together if McLaren are to overhaul Red Bull’s lead in the constructors’ championship.
The pause in the races will hopefully have allowed time for the team to reflect on how these last few races have played out. While perhaps they themselves have been surprised at how competitive they’ve been, they also need to ensure more wins and points aren’t thrown away by a lack of clarity coming from the pit wall.
Could McLaren pull off an upset?
Right now, Red Bull is in an impressive position, but their lead is under serious threat. With ten races left and McLaren putting up a seriously impressive car, the season is far from over.
It will be interesting to see what McLaren can do after the break, particularly with some key mistakes that Red Bull have made in recent races. They can’t ride on Verstappen’s coattails forever, and although he might be leading the Drivers’ Championship, thankfully for McLaren fans, Norris is really not too far behind.
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