Formula 1: The reason behind McLaren’s rise to dominance

The McLaren F1 team heads into the summer break on a high after another dominant display at Hungarian Grand Prix with another one/two finish. You’d be in the minority if you think McLaren isn’t going to win another constructors’ championship and either Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris isn’t going to be a world champion.

Piastri and Norris have owned the series of late and sit one (Piastri 284 points) and two (Norris 275 points) at the head of the points table. Max Verstappen is lurking in third (187) followed by George Russell (172) and Charles Leclerc (151).

McLaren won the constructors’ championship in 2024, and the signs were all there that the team founded by Kiwi Bruce McLaren would probably dominate in 2025. It was the first time McLaren won the constructors’ championship since the team’s halcyon days of the 1980s and 1990s.

The Weekend Herald had a chat with former McLaren F1 team member Bob McMurray who spent 33 years with the papaya outfit and most of it during its most successful era. The burning question is what changed to turn the team around for McLaren to now dominate the grid.

“Every team normally has a period of ascendancy and then slumps. In McLaren’s case back in 80s and 90s it felt like we could win a race on just three wheels,” said McMurray.

“There was total confidence in the team and the way it was being run. It was just a sort of a Nirvana at the time, and it was probably the best racing team at that time.

“But then things change and you’re seeing that now with Red Bull, you saw it with Ferrari multiple times also with Mercedes, with Williams and other teams over the years. Nobody stays at the top.

“When Ron [Dennis] left a number of people joined McLaren who had no motor racing experience and Martin Whitmarsh [CEO] moved McLaren away from its core activity of Formula One. All the pieces were sort of there, but they didn’t fit that well together, as well as not having the best drivers, and things started to slide.”

Visualising the rich history behind McLaren's 200 F1 wins 😍#F1 @McLarenF1 pic.twitter.com/KTG8YjBw4L

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 4, 2025

Things slowly began to change after Zak Brown (CEO of McLaren Racing) took over the helm of the racing side of things after a restructure of the McLaren Technology Group. As an ex-racer himself he knew what had to be done and is very much aware of knowing what he doesn’t know. Hence one of his first moves was to appoint Andrea Stella to the role of team principal after having various race roles at the team since 2015.

“He quickly got to understand the fact that you’ve got to put every piece of the jigsaw puzzle back together again and all the pieces in right place somehow to get it to work properly.

“Zak elevated Stella, put him in charge and gave him a complete control over the engineering and then Zak went out and got the money to run the place properly. Then he was smart enough to know that you’ve got to get the right people alongside Stella. Peter Drew was still there who works very well with Rob Marshall who came from Red Bull. “Now they’ve got all sorts of people back in there and working properly along with two young, hungry drivers.

“They’ve got people who work very well together, understand all the various bits of the car, and clearly the car is head and shoulders above all the others in most conditions and have two very good drivers who know how to get the very best out of the car, which is what you need,” said McMurray.

TEAM STANDINGS (after 14/24 rounds)

McLaren surge even further ahead 📈
Aston Martin jump two places 👏#F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/sw0Pl8gtDw

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 3, 2025