Why McLaren is not missing Alonso

Fernando Alonso was box-office gold for Formula 1, and knew the value of a good story. The next generation of McLaren drivers seem to have similar appreciation.

Impressive 2019 rookie Lando Norris has been snapped up early for 2020, which McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown says was to avoid being part of the "silly season" this summer. And when Autosport asks Norris about exactly that, and committing to McLaren, Norris shoots back: "I would have loved to be part of the silly season!

"But I would still have loved to be part of McLaren after it. Just to be part of it would be cool. Just for the media side of things."

But a penchant for mischief and a headline-friendly way with words does not make Norris a new British adaptation of the Alonso pantomime. Not at all. From his first qualifying session in Australia, where Norris secured eighth for his debut, the 19-year-old has offered plenty of substance to the style.

The same goes for his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. Thanks to both drivers, McLaren has a strong grip on fourth in the constructors' championship as the F1 season prepares to pass the half-way mark.

The 60 points earned by Sainz and Norris represent a tally that is still well behind where McLaren wants to be. Red Bull, third in the championship, has more than three times as many. So, there remains a very long way to go. But with its shining two-time world champion totem gone, and in his place an all-new driver line-up that includes a rookie, it was very possible ahead of the season that McLaren's fortunes would get worse before they got better.

McLaren's troubles with its 2018 car and the departure of Alonso, plus his team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, could have left the team lost in the wilderness this year. Instead, it seems to be striding confidently in the right direction, led with ever greater purpose by Sainz and Norris.

"The fact that we announced them already for next year, that shows we have a lot of confidence in them," says team principal Andreas Seidl. "We are very happy with the speed, with the work they are doing together with us as a team, with the spirit and the positive morale they bring, the way they work and interact with this team.

"They're the future for this team. That's all I can say, really."

Let's deal with the speed. Where comparisons are fair, i.e. at the point of elimination in qualifying, Sainz and Norris are just 0.039 seconds apart on average this season. Between them they have put McLaren into the top-10 qualifying shootout eight times in 10 races, with Norris enjoying consecutive fifth-place starts in France and Austria. Sainz has excelled in race trim, boasting sixth-place finishes in Monaco, France and Britain (the last of those despite starting 13th). Between the two drivers, McLaren has won the 'Class B' battle four times.

Alonso comes with an immensely bright spotlight. A team in the midfield is not the best place for that

Every team has its setbacks and McLaren is no different. Sainz retired from the first two grands prix of his McLaren career, and in Canada he was forced to pit on lap three because of a tear-off stuck in a brake duct. Norris has 22 points so far in his rookie season and would have an even better haul if not for an early retirement in Canada and a hydraulics problem in France. However, it seems that there is little more to get from the MCL34 that Sainz and Norris have not been able to already extract.

The work they are doing for the team is also vital. The key thing that will encourage McLaren and buoy its workforce is that as its car has become more competitive, Sainz and Norris have delivered. Compare that to Haas, where the frustration of having a fast car but failing to exploit it - the team is fifth-fastest on average, but sits ninth in the championship - just keeps on building...

Judging the efforts of Sainz and Norris in the most cynical fashion would be to ask 'what would Alonso be doing in that car?'. Well, he'd be finishing best of the rest when it is fourth-fastest, sniping some 'Class B' wins when the car is nearly quickest in the midfield, be seventh in the drivers' championship, and leading McLaren to best of the rest in the constructors' championship.

So, just to check...

Number of times McLaren has had the fourth-fastest car: Twice (France, Britain). Sainz won 'Class B' at both races.

Number of 'Class B' wins without having the fourth-fastest car: Three (Bahrain, Monaco, Austria).

Seventh in the drivers' championship: Sainz (13 points ahead of Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen, only 17 behind Red Bull driver Pierre Gasly).

Fourth in the constructors' championship: McLaren (21 points ahead of Renault).

That is quite emphatic. McLaren has only had the fastest car in Class B twice (when comparing every team's fastest lap of the weekend as a percentage of the outright best), yet over the course of the season it is the fourth-fastest on average. So, the car is very consistent and capable of high peaks - and the drivers, crucially, are matching their machinery stride for stride.

None of this is to say that Alonso did not contribute a massive amount to McLaren, or to F1, or that he is suddenly forgotten. He will rightly have a permanent place in F1 history for his titles, and folklore for the other elements of his remarkable career.

But Alonso comes with an immensely bright spotlight. A team in the midfield is not the best place for that. As Renault has discovered with Daniel Ricciardo this year, there is great scrutiny when you have a driver who 'outranks' the team. And in Renault's case, that's just a winner of a few grands prix.

A two-time world champion with very high standards and a cutting tongue is not a serene fit for a team undergoing a big rebuild. Alonso stopped being a 'project' driver a long time ago, but Sainz and Norris are perfect for the role now.

They are young, determined, likeable and very fast, but crucially they do not come with the same burden of expectation. Time is on their side, so there is not the same impatience. McLaren is much bigger than both, therefore the opportunity is much bigger to them. It is a very good balance for a team to have during this kind of transition. This is the sort of positive spirit and the impact that has on morale that Seidl talks about.

What McLaren is saying with the 2020 message is crystal clear: Sainz and Norris are the future

There is no doubt that losing a driver of Alonso's calibre from a full season removes an immense benchmark and a wealth of experience.

Downloading the specifics of a problem or dialling into a certain development path might take a little longer. But from what Seidl says, McLaren is not suffering a great deal with Sainz and Norris. Remember that Sainz is not new to F1: this is his fifth season, he gained good experience from his stint with the works Renault team, and his role as de facto team leader should not be underestimated.

"When we look into more detail of the guys, Carlos has impressed from the first test in Abu Dhabi," says Seidl. "The feedback he is doing, he clearly has the experience already, and he was the main guy making sure we find the correlation between the driver simulator and reality.

"He is giving a lot of input to the engineers regarding the next steps we have to do with the car, so it is really impressive seeing the work he is doing outside of the car."

Sainz's swift transition at McLaren, and Norris passing his "probation" period - as Seidl calls it - with flying colours, has allowed a new-look team to flourish while still early in its recovery.

And the winds of change have not only blown through the drivers' quarters at McLaren: Seidl joined in May, not long after new technical director James Key.

It is difficult not to like Seidl. He seems to represent the breath of fresh air in the team, with zero bullshit and a focus on getting the basics right. So, it seems fitting that he quickly identified the importance of locking down McLaren's new prized assets. Minimal fuss, maximum gain.

"I made the proposal to Zak: 'Let's be straight inside the team and also to the outside world, that we continue with both guys next year'," says Seidl. "I like clarity. We like clarity inside the team.

"This makes sure that we focus on our core business, which is improving the organisation, improving our car and that is why we went straight in delivering our message to the outside world that early."

What McLaren is saying with that message is crystal clear: Sainz and Norris are the future. And what its drivers are saying with their performances is equally emphatic: there's nothing McLaren could be achieving with Alonso in the car that it's not achieving anyway.

It should be noted that McLaren has made sure to recognise the role Alonso's development work has played in its short-term turnaround. And losing Alonso's star appeal has surely come at a cost at some point. After all, Alonso was box-office gold.

But replacing one leading man with two has not proved a bad trade for McLaren at all.