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Why McLaren can be a true force in F1 again

History's second most successful Formula 1 team fell far, and fell hard at the start of the turbo hybrid era. But out of the doldrums of the Honda era, at last a revitalised empire is preparing to strike back with Mercedes power and a reinforced driver lineup

As frustrated as he was with his own third-place finish, Lewis Hamilton spoke with real heart and pride about the performance of his former team, McLaren, in qualifying for the 2020 Formula 1 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Lando Norris had qualified fourth at Yas Marina. On face value, it was a decent but hardly extraordinary result, and not even the team's best Saturday of the season. But the gap of 0.251 seconds to pole was minimal by any metric and, while skewed a bit by the fresh power unit in Norris's car, it was proof of how far McLaren has come.

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Author Luke Smith

Luke Smith is Autosport’s Formula 1 reporter. Luke has been working in F1 as a journalist since 2013, initially alongside a History degree at University College London. Luke served as the lead F1 writer at American broadcaster NBC Sports from 2013-17 before spending two years as the F1 Editor for Crash.net. Luke joined Autosport for the 2020 season.

Luke is also a contributor to The New York Times for its F1 special reports, and has previously worked with Al Jazeera and CNBC, as well as hosting FIA press conferences. Outside of F1, Luke is a fan of sports and music, with an ever-growing vinyl collection, and has being bitten by the running bug in recent years. He also runs a surprisingly popular blog reviewing the often-terrible media centre coffee from his F1 travels.