When McLaren was pipped by Red Bull in a modern F1 classic

Lewis Hamilton could, and perhaps should, have won his second world championship in this car. Then again, Jenson Button might have been crowned a two-time consecutive champion within its cockpit, given a fairer wind. Such are the fine margins that diverted the McLaren-Mercedes MP4-25 from its status as potentially a great grand prix car to merely a good one, thanks in large part to a 2010 Formula 1 season that was both deeply competitive and highly unpredictable.

It all could have been so different. Take a snapshot of that season and we’re reminded just how the fates twisted from what might have been. Dip in after the Canadian Grand Prix in June, for example, and McLaren was riding high following back-to-back Hamilton-Button one-twos, the pair looking down on the rest from the top and separated by just three points.

But squint closer and you notice just how tight it was. Red Bull’s Mark Webber was just a further three points in arrears, Fernando Alonso – adapting nicely to life in Ferrari red – was very much in contention in fourth. And there in fifth was one Sebastian Vettel.

Today, were they minded to, any one of the quintet could still make a case why they could have been champion in 2010. Yet it was the one who had the most to make up who finished wearing the crown. A classic F1 season.

MP4-25 was born from what was then a relatively rare McLaren dud (as we know, they became more common in the following decade). From the high drama of Hamilton’s last-gasp pass on Timo Glock to steal the 2008 title from under Felipe Massa’s tear-streaked nose, the team made a Horlicks of new technical regulations ushered in for 2009.

A hefty downforce-slashing aerodynamic re-write changed the shape of F1 cars, most noticeably with lower and wider front wings and higher and narrower rear wings. Then there were the tyres. Finally, for the first time since 1997, slicks were back and the era of the purposely flawed grooved F1 tyres was over. No one would miss them.

Fitted with slicks, the 2010 McLaren MP4-25 put together a strong season but went unrewarded

Photo by: James Mann

But as the incredible Brawn GP story played out, triggered by newly promoted McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh altruistically nudging Mercedes towards the new entity born from the ashes of Honda, and inadvertently creating a monster… his own team floundered. The MP4-24, carefully conceived over 18 months in preparation for the new rules, left Hamilton and team-mate Heikki Kovalainen as bit-part players in the wake of Brawn’s canny use of a double diffuser, as a surprised and delighted Button went from staring down the barrel of F1 exile to world champion-elect.

Only by mid-season did McLaren revive, a technical upgrade introduced for the German GP allowing Hamilton to shine at the Hungaroring, where he took the second of eight victories to date at the circuit near Budapest. That win marked a turnaround, and was also the first for a hybrid F1 car thanks to its new-fangled Kinetic Energy Recovery System – KERS. Such technology would be an F1 game-changer – although not yet – as Hamilton rallied further by winning from pole position in Singapore, then added podiums in Japan and Brazil.

At first, it had been a car unworthy of a world champion’s defence – but typically of McLaren, it had developed and evolved over the course of the season, and by the end was right where it should have been all along. That’s partly why new champion Button, unsettled and unsure where he stood when Mercedes bought Brawn, made a shock decision to call Martin Whitmarsh.

Button decided he needed a new challenge, to fall back in love with racing – and thought taking on F1’s fastest driver in ‘his own’ team ticked all the boxes

“It was while relaxing on a sun lounger in Dubai, with a chilled drink close by, that I decided I didn’t want to make life easy for myself,” he wrote in his autobiography.

The struggle of winning a world championship within a team that didn’t have the budget to develop its car through the season had taken its toll. Button decided he needed a new challenge, to fall back in love with racing – and thought taking on F1’s fastest driver in ‘his own’ team ticked all the boxes.

“Though their MP4-24 had begun the 2009 season in pretty poor shape they’d been quick to respond to the double-diffuser challenge and continued to develop and improve the car through the season,” he said. “It was that effort in turning around the car that really caught my attention.”

But facing up against Hamilton? Most quietly wondered about Button’s sanity.

“I wanted Lewis Hamilton as a team-mate,” he insisted. “You could come up with all sorts of psycho-babble reasons why I wanted to partner him, but it would boil down to one: I am a sportsman. I feed off competition and I wanted to pit myself against the fastest driver on the grid, a world champion. I wanted to see if I could beat him.”

While some doubted the wisdom of Button jumping into a team Hamilton had made his own, he quickly showed he could take on and beat the 2008 champion

Photo by: Sutton Images

The coup, as Button replaced the underwhelming Kovalainen, created a couple of landmarks: this was the first time Formula 1’s two most recent world champions lined up in the same team, and a first since 1968, when Graham Hill joined Jim Clark at Team Lotus, that two British world champions were team-mates. God save the King!

Launched at the UK headquarters of sponsor Vodafone, MP4-25 represented a significant step on from its predecessor, largely because of another key change in F1’s shifting-sand regulations. The 2010 season would be the first since 1993 not to feature in-race refuelling. The sprint-stop-sprint GP was out, in favour of a return to managing a steadily decreasing fuel load over a race distance. So McLaren’s new model featured a radical aerodynamic overhaul and a substantially larger fuel tank.

“Just about everything has changed on this car,” said engineering director Paddy Lowe at the launch. “We also had to get Jenson acclimatised, make sure he was comfortable in the cockpit and work with him to find a brake pad construction he is happy with.”

Focus lasered in on the floor to eke out aero benefits, with the new fuel requirements leading to a change in layout at the rear. The car was much longer than its predecessor (5111mm vs 4892mm), partly because of the additional fuel capacity. And the hybrid element was out for 2010, too. KERS was still officially legal but, since the first attempt to introduce an F1 budget cap was scuppered, the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) agreed to shelve the technology for now in a bid to curb costs, as three new teams – a revived version of Lotus, HRT and Virgin – joined the fray.

“We’ve also lowered the chassis and bodywork while the removal of KERS has opened up opportunities on internal layout and weight distribution so that it is quite a different aerodynamic treatment to last year,” reported Tim Goss, McLaren’s chief engineer.

But as F1 froze its interests in hybrid – at least on the surface – other innovations peeked through to find new advantages. This was the year of McLaren’s so-called F-duct, an ingenious bit of design that used a small snorkel air scoop mounted in front of the driver to channel air through a duct in the cockpit and towards the rear of the car.

Changes in the pressure in the duct, in combination with small slots in the rear wing, caused the wing to enter a stalled state at high speed, reducing aerodynamic drag, and allowing the car as much as an extra 6mph on the straights. Famously, the effect was controlled by the driver covering up a small hole in the cockpit with his left leg.

McLaren's F-duct for 2010 generated plenty of interest

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

Known internally as RW80, its nickname was either derived from the shape of the air intake – or its positioning beside the F of the Vodafone logo. We prefer the latter suggestion. Naturally, Red Bull complained to the FIA, but MP4-25 was cleared for take-off.

The first race of the new no-refuelling era didn’t exactly bode well. Vettel led an uninspiring affair until 16 laps from the finish when a spark plug failure cost him victory and the early championship lead. That left Alonso to make a dream start to his new life at Ferrari, leading Felipe Massa to a Maranello one-two. Hamilton at least passed the troubled Vettel to record a podium third, but Button’s McLaren debut had been forgettable. Still, he’d put that firmly behind him in Australia.

This was one of those races that contributed to Button forging his reputation as a tyre whisperer in changing conditions. However, it didn’t start well in Albert Park. Alonso pinched him at Turn 1, the McLaren making contact and spinning the Ferrari around.

Hamilton at first believed his team-mate had ignored a team order not to engage, but that order had never come

What turned Button’s race was his decision to pit early for slicks. He regretted it immediately and almost lost the car first lap out, but then realised his instincts had been spot on. Button rose from P19 to P2, then cashed in when Vettel again found himself out of luck. This time, the Red Bull’s left-front wheel broke, gifting Button his second consecutive Australian GP victory.

Meanwhile, Hamilton was left raging at his team’s strategy in sixth, after a rear-ending from Webber’s Red Bull. It had been all smiles when the 2008 world champion first welcomed his title successor into the McLaren fold – but Button would sense an underlying frost bordering on paranoia as the weeks and months progressed. Already, McLaren loved Button and under Whitmarsh’s lighter hand (in comparison with Ron Dennis’s iron grip), this was largely a happy ship.

“I was grizzled enough to know a few tricks when it comes to ingratiating myself with my new colleagues,” wrote Button in his book. “Nothing especially cunning, just spend a bit of time with the guys, make sure there’s mutual respect there.”

Button’s move gained further validation in China, after a poor Malaysian GP. Again in hard-to-read conditions, Button made the right calls at the right time, to lead Hamilton to a McLaren one-two. Four races in, the champion had two victories and a 10-point lead over the driver who would have been his team-mate had he stuck rather than twisted. Nico Rosberg was making a decent start to life at newly badged Mercedes, although Button’s replacement – one Michael Schumacher, back from a three-year retirement wilderness – was taking time to settle in.

Button's victory in Melbourne showed McLaren would be in the mix for the title - but Ferrari and Red Bull remained in the fight too

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

Two poles and victories in a week for Webber, in Spain and Monaco, made him the third championship leader of the season, before Red Bull’s brewing cauldron boiled over in Turkey. Again, Webber was leading in Istanbul but, following an order to turn down his engine to save fuel, here came Vettel, barrelling up the inside on the back straight. A clear shift right took him into Webber and left a fuming Adrian Newey with his head in his hands. McLaren picked up the pieces, but Hamilton and Button came inches away from a similar catastrophe.

Hamilton had track position this time, but a miscommunication while he was fuel-saving left him vulnerable to an unknowing Button’s advances. Button swept ahead, only for Hamilton to retaliate and take back his lead. Hamilton at first believed his team-mate had ignored a team order not to engage, but that order had never come… This one was on the team, which still had another one-two to celebrate, somewhat uneasily.

Canada was next, with Hamilton again leading Button to a team one-two – in the first two-stop race of 2010. A day of mixed strategies created a welcome sense of uncertainty and provided a template for another major shift in the F1 landscape, when Pirelli replaced Bridgestone in 2011. The Italian supplier agreed to play for the show, even if it didn’t exactly reflect well on its purposely ‘rubbish’ high-degrading products.

That was all in the future. Here, in June 2010, Hamilton now led the championship narrowly from his team-mate. But Red Bull was coming.

In Valencia, Vettel scored his first win since Malaysia as team-mate Webber survived a terrifying flip after launching off Kovalainen’s Lotus. Typically, the Aussie shook it off, then was in a chippy mood at Silverstone when Red Bull switched a new wing from his car to Vettel’s. “Not bad for a number two driver,” he snapped on the radio after a landmark British GP win. Happy days.

At Hockenheim, Ferrari was back on form, but again this was a team riven by tension. Not for the first time that year, Massa was told on his radio, “Fernando is faster than you” as Alonso played politics. Ferrari copped a $100,000 fine at a time when team orders were officially outlawed – not that it cared.

Hamilton lost his points lead when Webber won in Hungary, but Hamilton hit back in style at Spa – despite dropping his car into the gravel at Rivage. Salvaging victory from Webber, on another mixed-conditions day when Alonso was taken out by Rubens Barrichello’s Williams and an out-of-control Vettel speared into Button, lifted Hamilton back on top. Was it now between him and the chippy Aussie? It looked that way.

McLaren's form dwindled when it mattered most in the latter stages of the campaign

Photo by: Lorenzo Bellanca / Motorsport Images

How McLaren’s season unravelled from this point is hard to explain. The season just drifted away. Button led two-thirds of the Italian GP, only for Alonso to get the better of the pitstops to send the tifosi into rapture. Hamilton broke his suspension in contact with Massa at the Roggia chicane.

In Singapore, Hamilton again slumped into retirement after a clash with Webber, who held on to his points lead with a podium third. Alonso just beat Vettel, and now the Spaniard loomed as Webber’s biggest threat.

Japan was a washout, with qualifying delayed until Sunday morning, and the race was all about Red Bull, Vettel beating Webber. Take a snap of the points at this stage: Webber 220, Alonso 206, Vettel 206, Hamilton 192, Button 189. Suddenly within a couple of races, the McLaren duo were long shots – and the championship was Webber’s to lose.

Hamilton and Button were fourth and fifth in the final reckoning, with McLaren runner-up to Red Bull in the constructors’

Which is what he did, in the new (and underwhelming) Korean GP. Dropping it on a greasy kerb was probably the moment his best shot at a title slipped away. But here, even Vettel’s bad luck returned, an engine blow-up leaving Alonso to win from Hamilton. Fortune had swung again, now in the Ferrari driver’s favour. Two races to run and Alonso held an 11-point advantage over Webber, with Vettel a further seven back.

Nico Hulkenberg threw something new into the heady mix with an opportunistic pole for Williams at Interlagos – still his only one – but the race was all about the Red Bulls, Vettel winning from Webber. Still, Alonso was third, which gave him an eight-point edge over Webber as they headed to Abu Dhabi. Vettel was 15 points away from the top.

So, one of the great finales? Well, one of the strangest. Alonso corked up behind a faultless Vitaly Petrov in a Renault for 40 laps was an indictment of the circuit and F1’s state of play on overtaking. We need DRS! (It followed in 2011.) Ferrari had been watching Webber too closely, took its eye off pole-winning Vettel and spectacularly fumbled its strategy.

Alonso trundled in a disbelieving seventh, losing his cool and his sense of sportsmanship by blaming Petrov for the slipped title. Hey, the Russian had just being doing his job – and very well, too. Also, when it came to it, Vettel went out and won his first title properly, beating Hamilton through the stops. Hamilton also found himself frustrated behind a yellow Renault – that of Robert Kubica.

Vettel emerged as champion after winning at the Abu Dhabi finale - where Red Bull also secured the constructors' crown

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

As Vettel crossed the line to win the race, his engineer Guillaume Rocquelin tried to keep his cool. “I need to wait until everyone has crossed the line, but it’s looking good,” he said on the radio, doing his best to maintain an even tone. “You just wait, sunshine, you just wait.”

‘Rocky’ counted them in: Hamilton and Button P2 and P3, Rosberg P4, Kubica P5, Petrov P6… “Du bist Weltmeister!” he let rip, as his driver burst into tears. Vettel hadn’t led the world championship all year – until the only time it counted. “Let’s not forget, you are the youngest world champion in history,” exclaimed Rocky. “You are allowed to cry, mate, you are allowed to cry.”

As for Hamilton and Button, they were fourth and fifth in the final reckoning, with McLaren runner-up to Red Bull in the constructors’. Somewhere, Ron Dennis sneered. But Button, who usually had a knack of finding the sunny uplands, was all smiles.

“I was happy,” he claimed. “I’d come into the season wanting to relocate my love of racing, hoping the challenge of partnering Lewis and driving for McLaren would be the catalyst for that, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Yes, they’d lost – but for the rest of us, what a season.

Race record

Starts: 38
Wins: 5
Pole positions: 1
Fastest laps: 6
Podiums: 11
Championship points: 454

Specification

Chassis: Carbonfibre/aluminium honeycomb composite monocoque
Suspension: Unequal length wishbone, pushrod and bell crank operating inboard torsion bar/damper
Engine: Mercedes-Benz FO 108X V8
Engine capacity: 2,398cc
Power: 750bhp @ 18,000rpm
Gearbox: McLaren sequential longitudinal 7-speed semi-automatic
Brakes: Carbon discs
Tyres: Bridgestone
Weight: 620kg (with driver)
Notable drivers: Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton

Its record of five wins helped the MP4-25 get past its 2009 nadir, although it wasn't enough for either title

Photo by: James Mann