“Just a starting point”: McLaren boss fires warning message to Ferrari & Red Bull following major championship triumph
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella fired warning shots at rivals like Red Bull and Ferrari after his team won the 2024 F1 constructors' championship. He feels that the British team will win quite a lot of titles in the future.
At the beginning of the 2024 F1 season, Red Bull and Max Verstappen continued their dominant run from 2023. As the season progressed, however, both Verstappen and Perez started struggling in races while other teams like McLaren and Ferrari drastically closed the gap. Checo was unable to score decent points, while Verstappen's dominance diminished a bit. This affected Red Bull massively and they gradually lost the championship to the Woking-based team.
In the end, McLaren won the constructors' championship against both Red Bull and Ferrari. They celebrated the victory at the Abu Dhabi GP since the competition between them and Ferrari was tight and was decided at the end of the season.
After winning the title, Andrea Stella thanked all the team members for their efforts. He then mentioned that this was the beginning of a good phase for the team and that more titles could come in the future.
"That's what we have gone through in these ten years at McLaren, but hopefully, this is not an endpoint. This is just a starting point for more to come in the future," Stella said. (via GPBlog)
The British team managed to win a constructors' championship after 26 years. The last time they won the title was in 1998 with Mika Hakkinen, who clinched his first title that year. Interestingly, the papaya team was in a title tussle with Ferrari in 1998 as well.
The 2024 constructors' title-decider race at Abu Dhabi was quite nerve-wracking for both McLaren and Ferrari as both their drivers pushed hard in the race.
Zak Brown expresses how tense the McLaren-Ferrari title battle felt at Abu Dhabi
After winning the 2024 constructors' championship, McLaren CEO Zak Brown expressed what he felt during the two-hour-long race in Abu Dhabi. Speaking to the media, he joked that it was the worst two hours of his life. He then heaped praise on Lando Norris for his performance and mentioned Oscar Piastri's unfortunate incidents in the beginning.
He gave extra credit to Norris, saying that he drove flawlessly and cemented the title victory.
“That was the worst two hours of my life, by far. I mean, Lando drove brilliantly, unfortunate what happened to Oscar at the start, but the team was flawless. They executed the pit stop great and I think I was the only one who was ready to have a heart attack for two hours," Brown said. (via F1.com)
“That race, [Norris] carried us. To not make any mistakes, we were worried about Safety Cars, I was worried about everything. But he drove flawlessly," he added.
McLaren ended the season with 666 points, while Ferrari finished second with 652 points. The 2023 F1 champions, Red Bull, finished third in the standings with only 589 points.