2025 or bust for McClaren’s F1 drivers’ title hopes, insists team’s former mechanic Marc Priestley

The Woking outfit clinched a first constructors’ crown since 1998 last season but Lando Norris had to settle for second after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen wrapped up his fourth successive title.

Next year will be the last before big regulation changes come into force and Priestley insists it’s almost a case of 2025 or never for a McClaren driver to follow in Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 footsteps.

“From the outside it looks like they’ve just switched it on but the recovery has been in the making for the last five or six years,” the man known as the F1 Elvis told the Fuelling Around podcast.

“They’ve been building the management structure in place, putting in new processes, and the whole company has been almost rebuilding from the inside out. I’ve still got a lot of friends there, I’ve been in and out of the company a lot in recent times, so I’ve seen this happening. For me it’s not really a surprise.

“The most exciting part of it all, I think, is we get the same cars, effectively, the same rules and we know they are now at the top of their game. 2025 could be a really interesting year for McClaren fans particularly.

“In 2026, it’s the biggest change technically that Formula 1 has ever had in its history. The cars change, the power units change which means we’ve got something of a lottery in 2026 I guess - who knows who is going to come out on top? The upshot of that is 2025 could be McClaren’s really big chance, who knows their only chance for a while and they’ve kind of got to make it work.

“Typically the big teams will still be the big teams. But we’ve got Aston Martin who we know are building in the background with Adrian Newey and another group of brilliant technical people with a lot of money behind them. We know Williams are building something pretty good as well. Who knows? When you get such a massive rule change it’s an opportunity for almost anybody, particularly in a budget-capped era that we’ve got right now where it’s a relatively level playing field, anyone could just do a brilliant job and catapult themselves up the order.”

At certain points in 2024, it looked like Norris could end Verstappen’s dominance. But the Dutchman held his nerve and capitalised on what Priestly details as McClaren’s lack of winning know-how.

Citing Canada when the safety car was called out as one example, while podcast co-host and British Touring Car Championship legend Jason Plato flagged the pit strategy for Silverstone, it’s the fine margins that have made all the difference.

Having walked away from the pits in 2009 to pursue a media career, Priestley feels his former colleagues can view this year as part of their journey towards success again.

“I can tell you from having been through this, from personal experience it doesn’t necessarily just come naturally,” he added during the episode that covered a host of other motorsport and motoring topics.

“From everybody watching on from the outside you look at what Max and Red Bull have been doing and what Mercedes did before that, you sort of think: ‘Here’s McLaren now with a great car, why can’t they just deliver the same?’ But you have to build up to that.

“Red Bull and Max have got this recent history where they’ve got so much confidence and self belief, they can make decisions quickly and instinctively on the pit wall - typically they’re generally right. McLaren are still kind of finding their feet in that regard and they’re learning how to win again. It seems like a strange thing to say but it’s true, you have to build the confidence to be able to make those snap decisions.

“If you look back over this season there’s been quite a few occurrences where McClaren have probably, if they’re honest, left points on the table because they maybe hesitated for a moment in terms of making a decision.”