How McLaren’s resurgence stepped up a level at Monza

McLaren has a somewhat chequered history in Formula 1, and this is no pun. But it's a fitting time for the team's resurgence in the year it marked the 50th anniversary of Bruce McLaren's tragic loss at Goodwood. It has seen success in practically every decade since the formation of the company and its exploits are widely recognised, so it's a great relief to me, as a former employee, that McLaren seems to have found its mojo once more.

Last weekend at Monza we saw, as team principal Andreas Seidl quite rightly said, McLaren performing as the second-best team. In this extraordinary Italian Grand Prix, the MCL35 of Carlos Sainz Jr lined up third on the grid behind the two Mercedes.

In the opening stint, due to Valtteri Bottas again not getting cleanly away from the line, Sainz made second place his own and had there not been any safety cars, this is where he would have finished, but behind Lewis Hamilton. Lando Norris had also nipped past Bottas on the opening lap, and could have made it two McLarens on the podium for the first time since 2014.

The irony is that the car Sainz was ultimately chasing for victory, the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly, was powered by a Honda engine. Arguably the greatest period of McLaren's history was when it was powered by Honda to four consecutive title doubles between 1988s and 1991. It's tempting to ponder whether sticking with the Japanese firm two years ago would have altered the outcome...

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So why has McLaren become a contender in the last few races?

Although not showing a particularly strong pace back in February at the official Barcelona tests, things have improved at the races. That was immediately evident at the Austrian Grand Prix, where Norris surprised everyone with a feisty third place to capitalise on Hamilton's penalty for colliding with Alex Albon. This was followed up with fifth place at the Styrian GP a week later, passing three cars in the last two laps.

A lot of people will have missed it, but McLaren drivers took the fastest lap at both Austrian races - the first time it had done so in consecutive races since the 2011 Singapore and Japanese Grands Prix.

This was maybe a sign of things to come as the Red Bull Ring is a high-speed circuit. But at the Hungaroring - a high-downforce track - McLaren suffered, with Sainz only just creeping into the points, promoted one place to ninth by Kevin Magnussen's penalty.

Silverstone again showed it was working well with a low downforce set-up, as Sainz was running strongly in fifth before his puncture promoted Norris, although both cars struggled more in the 70th Anniversary GP on the softer compound tyres.

The car also has good straight-line speed, as shown by the fact that Bottas couldn't pass Norris even with the benefit of DRS

Since then, McLaren has been on an upward curve. Sainz drove a strong race to sixth in Spain and was unfortunate not to be able to start at Spa due to a power unit failure, while Norris again finished in the points.

Coming to Monza, we were led to believe that the greatest threat to Mercedes would come from Renault. Both drivers showed great form at Spa and were talking the talk about how well they would do at this ultra-quick low downforce circuit, without having to worry about the compromises involved in the middle sector at Spa. However, it was McLaren, using the Renault engine that emerged as the biggest threat.

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Obviously, like Renault, the chassis has benefitted from a reduction in downforce, meaning that it can run softer springs and revised damping. This does not provide whole answer however. The car also has good straightline speed, as shown by the fact that Bottas couldn't pass Norris even with the benefit of DRS.

The team has of course suffered through the pandemic, with the news that it had to find extra funding to keep afloat and make 1200 redundancies across its operations, but over the past two years the team has been restructured to great effect.

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There is no doubt that while many of the personalities who made this team so successful are no longer there, the ethos is still strong. Under the leadership of Zak Brown, the team has been rebuilt and is one to be reckoned with again. As we look at the Williams team and the departure of the family that has run it for the past 40 years, we should be aware how important it is not to lose another piece of motor racing history.

It appears that McLaren's rebuilding job still has a few stages remaining. For starters, it is still a customer team in the engine department - Ron Dennis' logic that McLaren could never beat Mercedes with the same engine being key to its decision to throw in its lot with Honda - and it doesn't have an on-site windtunnel, with that project still a year behind schedule according to technical director James Key.

When you look at the facilities that Renault have at their disposal, it is even more impressive that McLaren is two places ahead, sitting third in the constructors' championship. That makes it all the more surprising that Cyril Abiteboul should have criticised Red Bull for "missing a trick" by always running independent of its engine supplier - and yet both Red Bull and McLaren are ahead of Renault.

Now that McLaren has found the 'sweet spot' in its set up, albeit in low downforce form, I would expect the team to capitalise on this and maintain their momentum. It may not aspire to challenge Mercedes, as Seidl was at pains to stress before the race at Monza, but it will certainly worry Racing Point and maybe even Red Bull.

The next race at Mugello is an unknown quantity, except for Ferrari and some drivers who would have been here in their F3 days. But with flowing corners and a long start/finish straight, I would imagine that McLaren will be in the reckoning again.

It's been a long time since McLaren was consistently fighting at the front of the grid - but times are changing and for the better.