McLaren didn’t have to win a Grand Prix in 2021 to underscore its ongoing resurgence, but success at Monza certainly didn’t hurt. Daniel Ricciardo’s victory was a confidence boost for the entire team and also confirmed the decisions made by CEO Zak Brown and team principal Andreas Seidl in recent years.
The team suffered from a long drought of 170 races following Jenson Button’s previous win at the 2012 season finale in Brazil. That was also the last McLaren outing for Lewis Hamilton, who was on pole that day but gave up the lead after a collision with Nico Hulkenberg.
At the time, Hamilton was on his way to Mercedes and many observers considered him ill-advised to leave the mighty McLaren and join a team that finished only fifth in this year’s Constructors’ Championship.
Hamilton had some good information from Ross Brawn and Niki Lauda, and he knew that Mercedes would take off in the hybrid era in 2014. But even he couldn’t have predicted how badly his former team would stumble in the next few years.
Hamilton escaped Alonso’s fate at McLaren in 2015
Grand Prize Photo
A lot has happened during that time. However, the departures of former bosses Ron Dennis, Martin Whitmarsh and Eric Boullier and the disastrous relationship with Honda have all gone down in the history books, and under Brown and Seidl it is now back on the way to the top, complete with a fresh new image.
It was not an easy path, and so no one grudged the team the celebrations that took place at the factory shortly after Monza. But nobody gets carried away too much – Mercedes and Red Bull stay one step ahead.
“I’m just happy for everyone in the team,” says Seidl. “To see how everyone celebrated. Because knowing that it was a while ago for McLaren, it was of course a great day for us on the track, a great day for everyone at the MTC because the team had a tough time.
“And we have people on the team who have seen success in the past and have had some really dark days after that. And of course it was great for them to see another McLaren car on the top step of the podium.
“But at the same time we have a lot of young people on the team or people who have joined us in the last three or four years and who have never experienced such success in Formula 1. So what went through my mind that it’s just a great reward to all of these people for all the hard work that everyone is doing.
“If Lando had fought like Daniel, the factory roof would have burned pretty quickly!”
“And for me personally it is simply a confirmation that we are on the right track, which is crucial for our clear goals. We want to come back to a point where we can fight for race wins every race weekend. “
Victory after such a long drought must take some pressure off everyone in the camp – people will no longer ask how long the streaks will last. However, Seidl downplays statistical relevance and prefers to see the overall picture of consistent improvement.
“To be honest, I don’t like to see this win out of the way. To be honest, I’m not focusing too much on these individual results. It was a great day for the team. As I said earlier, we all live for those moments of joy and emotion that come from winning such a race. That’s why we wake up in the morning because we want to win races in the end.
“But at the same time, my focus is the team’s focus on just moving on. Because in the end you want to be able to fight for race wins on every track and fight for the championships again in the future.
Norris was disappointed with P2 but was crucial to the team’s efforts this season
Grand Prix photo
“And for me, during the entire weekend in Monza, it was most gratifying to see that the team was actually under pressure from three race weekends when we didn’t score good points, with the pressure to have a competitive car,” under this pressure delivered.
“And that makes me confident, because we already have a lot of ingredients in the team that are important when we fight with Red Bull or Mercedes every race weekend.
“We had a reliable car, a competitive car, the fastest race lap, the fastest pit stop under a lot of pressure because we knew it was crucial to stay ahead and fight for victory. And in the end it was a merit win down there on this particular track, and it was great to see. “
Perhaps the biggest surprise was that the first victory of McLaren’s new era was won by Ricciardo, and not Lando Norris, who followed him over the finish line in second.
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