It was a particularly difficult start to the season, but in the end McLaren managed to finish the season fourth in the constructors’ championship. According to McLaren driver Lando Norris, the turnaround that McLaren achieved last season was the biggest in the past 10 years.
“I’m so emotionally proud of the whole team, they have achieved such an incredible turnaround,” said Norris of McLaren’s sensational turnaround this season.
“It was one of the biggest turnarounds in probably the last ten years, at a time when it is more difficult than ever to modify a car due to limited time in the wind tunnel, costs and so on.”
“The beginning was tough because I thought it was going to be like this for a full year. We didn’t know how much we were going to improve, especially at the beginning.”
“We said ‘We’re going to be a little patient and we know there’s some decent stuff coming.’ But in recent years there have also been significant things that have happened but which did not lead to much improvement.”
“This year was the opposite and it turned out to be a bigger improvement than we expected.”
“But it was tough because you never want to start the season thinking there are 24 races coming up and you can’t even get out of Q1.”