JACQUES: Efficiency, decisive leadership, and driver harmony – How McLaren sealed back-to-back titles in 2025

It’s official: the crown has been retained. McLaren are the World Constructors’ Champions for the 10th time in the team’s history.

On Sunday in Singapore the Woking-based team wrapped up title number 10, with three Sprint races and six Grands Prix remaining – but in reality, they won this prize long ago.

However, it is worth underlining that when the season started with the Australian Grand Prix back in March, not even McLaren expected it to be so straightforward. Paddock expectations in the rain of Albert Park were for an even season, with four teams consistently in contention for wins.

Instead, McLaren extended their 2024 advantage with a dominant car which allowed the drivers to keep their tyres alive for longer, giving them a strategic as well as speed advantage. The rest of the field were outclassed.

In sharp contrast with 2024’s triumph against Ferrari by less than the points total for a third place finish, McLaren took 2025 by storm, winning 12 out the first 15 races to make the title almost a formality.

So how have they done it?

Decisive leadership

It’s been quite the transformation since Zak Brown assumed the role of CEO in 2016 – when even a man with his confidence must have drawn breath at the scale of the task ahead of him.

The team had finished 689 points behind the champions Mercedes and were languishing in sixth place. Furthermore, he was replacing the defining leader in team’s history.

Ron Dennis had transformed McLaren from its beginnings as a typical 1960s driver/team start-up, to a perennial title-winning machine with exacting engineering and presentation standards which hauled the entire sport forward and forced the rest to play catch up.

Replacing Ron was the definition of a tough act to follow but this year’s triumph recalls the outfit's heyday, and is the team’s first back-to-back Constructors’ success since the 1990/1991 glory years with Ayrton Senna at the wheel.

Brown has moved decisively to reach this point. This extends to ultimately moving on people who were not performing. In a sporting era of “no blame culture” Brown has not been afraid to wield the axe when required, whether it be a popular driver or senior designer.

However, his most important personnel promotion happened somewhat by chance with former Team Principal Andreas Seidl's ill-fated move to the Audi project, which opened the door for Andrea Stella.

Stella was hugely respected even before his ascension to the role as Team Principal ahead of the 2023 season, and the cerebral Italian will be telling anyone who will listen tonight that titles are won because of many, but his calm methodical ethos has created an environment capable of running two winning drivers in an era where that cannot be taken for granted.

It’s why the points total of 650 is almost comically high (and exactly double that of nearest challengers Mercedes), and delivering with both cars is an immense source of pride for everyone at the McLaren factory.

Driver harmony

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have scored 12 Grand Prix victories between them so far this season but beyond race-winning pace both have subscribed to the manner in which the team has been run.

Many teams claim to build a culture, but this collective responsibility has unusually spilled over to the cockpit with the pair working well together – and crucially, any flash points which could have threatened team harmony have been quickly neutered by the drivers themselves. At least up to now – it remains to be seen if there is any fall-out from Piastri being unhappy with Norris' Lap 1 move on him in Singapore.

But there have been plenty of examples of the two drivers working for the good of the team overall. Moments such as Lando taking instant responsibility for his crash with Oscar in Canada, or Oscar listening to a team order after Lando’s slow pit stop in Monza cost him track position despite falling outside of what had been agreed pre race.

The team has been placed first in a way that few title fights have ever witnessed, and no riot act has had to be read in team debriefs (so far) – in contrast to many previous intra-team battles.

Efficiency in a new era of F1

Stella has also overseen amazing efficiency when it comes to allocating resources. In the budget cap era it is vital to know which pathways to pursue at the right moment.

Gone are the days of splashing $300million in all directions. It is no longer possible to hit a development brick wall without suffering the consequences.

Chief Designer Rob Marshall was one of the first key exits at the tail end of Red Bull’s Horner era, and his acquisition by McLaren will not have been cheap after 17 successful years at Milton Keynes, but the British engineer is lauded by his peers for his ability to connect departments efficiently.

He oversaw McLaren turning the corner with their game-changing Austria update in 2023 and since then almost every time they have brought upgrades to the car, it has seen improvement with the correlation between wind tunnel and racetrack proving incredibly accurate.

The result is a team record 28 podiums (so far) and a Constructors’ title to place them second in the all time list, passing Williams who had been level on nine championships.

The team will now seek their first Drivers’ title since Lewis Hamilton’s memorable 2008 success before trying to master the new technical regulations of 2026.

But those thoughts can wait. Singapore will see those in papaya celebrating one of the all-time great Formula 1 campaigns.