{"id":325106,"date":"2025-08-07T11:59:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T11:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/325106\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T11:59:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T11:59:12","slug":"how-mclaren-compares-with-ferraris-early-2000s-f1-dominance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/325106\/","title":{"rendered":"How McLaren compares with Ferrari’s early 2000s F1 dominance"},"content":{"rendered":"

From 1999 to 2004 Ferrari<\/a> won six consecutive Formula 1 constructors\u2019 championships and five drivers\u2019 championships. In 2000 it won 13 out of 17 grands prix; in its most dominant years, 2002 and 2004, it won 15 out of 17 and 15 out of 18 grands prix respectively. The F2004 car set lap records which at many venues lasted for years.<\/p>\n

Throughout this era it was dogged by unproved accusations of cheating by rivals who could not match its performance on track.<\/p>\n

Does this sound familiar? McLaren<\/a>\u2019s recent dominance has begun to invite comparison with Ferrari\u2019s last golden era, even down to some of the more elaborate and absurd conspiracy theories circulated by disgruntled competitors.<\/p>\n

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella knows what excellence looks like because he joined Ferrari in 2000 as a performance engineer for the test team, then moved up to work for the race team on Michael Schumacher<\/a>\u2019s side of the garage in 2002. He has described this era as inspirational because it represents the level of competitiveness every team should strive to achieve.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Ahead of last weekend\u2019s Hungarian Grand Prix, Stella was invited to compare McLaren\u2019s present level of dominance with Ferrari\u2019s two decades ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in a very different role,\u201d he said, \u201cso my field of view, my perspective was very different.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if I had to pick a couple of features of the journey that is happening here at McLaren, I would say the rate of progress we have had in a couple of years is in itself pretty unique, and possibly the rate of progress itself was even faster than what we experienced at Ferrari in the very competitive times.<\/p>\n

\"Lando <\/p>\n

Lando Norris, McLaren, Andrea Stella, McLaren<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sam Bagnall \/ Sutton Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second one is that there are no superstars. It’s like a proper team journey, and this includes even the drivers. So, I would say these are the two main features that are peculiar of the journey that we are having at McLaren right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Stella joined Ferrari it had only recently embarked on its journey back towards competitiveness. Schumacher\u2019s drivers\u2019 title in 2000 was the first for a Ferrari driver since Jody Scheckter in 1979.<\/p>\n

The catalyst for change at Ferrari was team principal Jean Todt, who first recruited Schumacher from Benetton then imported the engineering team of technical director Ross Brawn and chief designer Rory Byrne. But as Brawn has often said in the intervening years, the change was one of culture rather than personnel \u2013 as Stella says of McLaren now, there were no superstars.<\/p>\n

This was partly to avoid high-profile members of staff being targeted for poaching by rivals, but also to protect employees from the excesses of the Italian media. Brawn built a culture of \u2018responsibility not blame\u2019, where everyone was invited to submit ideas which might improve performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was driving each other,\u201d Brawn said in a 2017 interview with this author<\/a>, published in Autosport\u2019s sister title F1 Racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no higher force saying ‘you will succeed or you’ll be in trouble’. What I had been able to get rid of was the blame culture that existed when I arrived. That was the most damaging thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recall a meeting in the early days when we’d had a glitch, and [Ferrari president] Luca di Montezemolo was about to launch a witch hunt, and I said, ‘We’re not going to have a witch hunt. I’m responsible for everyone so if you want to blame anybody, blame me.’<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [Italian] media was very prolific, and there was a tendency to want to hang someone out to dry if anything went wrong. Fortunately Jean Todt was very on board with the idea that if you protected people they could get on and do a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jean <\/p>\n

Jean Todt, Team Principal, Ferrari, and Michael Schumacher, 1st position, on the podium<\/p>\n

Photo by: Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

A tight, motivated team is what underpins McLaren\u2019s current technical leadership, but it has been able to achieve what several other similarly well-motivated and expert organisations haven\u2019t: bring updates that work. This is where, arguably, McLaren has accelerated past early 2000s rate of progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis trend that we have been able to establish,\u201d said Stella, \u201cwhereby developments \u2013 being from a mechanical point of view, but above all aerodynamic \u2013 have been successful, is the result of many factors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s not much in Formula 1 fundamental for success that is a magic bullet. It’s really the result of working on the fundamentals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fundamentals don’t only involve the capacity to generate ideas, to create the next geometry for a floor or a front wing, but they also involve understanding the methodologies you use for this development. And understanding when these methodologies will be not only effective in being innovative \u2013 but also in giving you the confidence that what you have achieved in development in the wind tunnel or CFD will actually transfer into something that works trackside.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is part of generating the knowhow as a team, which in itself is a very simple statement: \u2018let’s generate the knowhow to have the best correlation\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in reality, this is possibly one of the most complicated battlegrounds for any Formula 1 team. We\u2019ve invested a lot from this point of view.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to praise the quality of the people because even if we talk methodologies, they are always led by people. I\u2019ve been very lucky that I could lean on very competent leaders and a very talented team.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

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