McLaren Face Challenges Despite Positive Start to the F1 Season

McLaren came into the 2025 Formula One (F1) season looking to win the Constructors’ Championship for the second successive year. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have both been in fine form during the early part of the campaign and look set to engage in a thrilling battle for the world title. However, vulnerabilities in strategy and execution are chinks in McLaren’s armour that highlight the team still has work to do to achieve their goals.

McLaren Make a Flying Start to the Season

Touted as the fastest car on the grid before the season started, the new MCL39 car is proving to be a game-changer for McLaren. The buzz around the car turned into substance at the first race in Australia as Norris pipped reigning champion Max Verstappen to first place. The British driver fended off competition from Verstappen with precision, showing a level of calm and confidence that earned him high praise from McLaren chief executive officer Zak Brown. “In Australia, he felt very in control,” Brown said. “There is lots of pressure on you when you’ve got your teammate and Max [Verstappen] in your DRS (Drag Reduction System) when you have those conditions, and I think there were three or four restarts.

“He was just very in control. He knew what he wanted. He knew when to listen and just felt like a very mature drive in what were very tricky conditions.”

Piastri also gave an excellent account of himself even though he flunked a podium finish on home soil thanks to a late rain shower and a minor error which dropped him down to ninth place.

Piastri Bounces Back from Australian Setback

Unlike his McLaren counterpart Norris, who weaved through the tricky conditions to preserve his lead, Piastri succumbed to the late shower and missed out on a poetic podium finish in Melbourne.

Brown was unfazed by Piastri's anticlimactic finale. He lavished praise on the Aussie driver’s ‘cool’ character and backed him to shrug off the setback.

Piastri proved Brown right as he rose from the ashes with a brilliant win in the subsequent race in China. He converted his maiden GP pole position into a fantastic victory, while Norris shook off a difficult start to complete McLaren’s 50th 1-2.

The victory was massive for the Australian betting community. A quick look at betting tips for today highlight that pundits do not think Piastri’s win was a fluke.

The Aussie star is one of the bookmakers’ favourites to win the world title this season, and betting experts fancy his chances of achieving the feat.

Trouble in the Details & the ‘Dirty Air’ Dilemma

The recent race in Japan was a sobering reminder of how thin the margins are at the top in F1.

Verstappen won for the first time this season, while McLaren left the Suzuka Circuit with more questions than answers – not about their speed, but about their strategy.

Norris and Piastri started from second and third on the grid, with Verstappen holding on to pole position. The race ended the way it began, but McLaren came under heavy scrutiny for costing Piastri a shot at victory.

The Aussie star repeatedly told the team he was quicker than Norris and felt he had the pace to hunt down Verstappen, but his suggestions fell on deaf ears as McLaren opted not to switch drivers.

It was a defining moment in the race. Norris had no chance of getting within Verstappen’s DRS range, yet McLaren left Piastri stuck behind his teammate in dirty air.

While McLaren’s missed opportunity was all their own fault, it also fuelled talks of the increasing challenge of dirty air.

F1 changed their regulations in 2022, which were supposed to make it easier for drivers to follow other cars by reducing aerodynamic turbulence. But the reality in 2025 tells a different story.

Cars should be able to follow more closely, but many teams have tweaked their aero packages to get more out of their machines, often at the cost of clean racing.