“McLaren Could Challenge for the Championship in 2025” – Former F1 Driver Mark Blundell

Former Le Mans winner and McLaren Formula 1 driver Mark Blundell believes that his former team can challenge for the F1 Constructors Championship as soon as 2025, as he explains to George Hoswon in the first of a series of interviews thanks to Freebets.com.

Transcription

 Now, one team that has been clawing back, not a small team by any means, is one of your former teams, McLaren. They have been the regular challengers to Red Bull, in particular, Lando Norris, over these past five, six races or so. Norris seems to be the only one who can get close to Verstappen during most of these races, but I wanted to ask, what do you, what do you think, how long do you think it’s going to take for them to get back to the forefront of F1?

And by that, I mean winning races regularly, because newer fans may not know, but McLaren are an extremely successful team in terms of their wins. So, and championships like when I was growing up they were the team to be around and I want to see them go back to them glory, them glory days but how, how long do you think it will be until they can realistically challenge for an F1 championship?

Will it take till 2026 when these regulations are, changes are happening or? Could they do it sooner, perhaps? I think actually, like, next season is the golden time in many ways because, you know, they’re catching up at such a rate that if they can, you know, go through the off season between this season and next and take that next step under the regulations currently, that might just be enough to align themselves at Red Bull and take the fight to them.

Yeah, the combination between Norris and McLaren is a formidable one at the moment, and technically given the Red Bull and Verstappen, something to think about. It’d be nice to see the Asprey, you know, step up a little bit more as well. And as a team develop together, because two heads is always better than one and a much faster rate of progress.

But I think, you know, if anything, next season will be the one that they really need to focus on and try to get a championship, a soul. And it doesn’t just stop there with. Driver and car it also goes to the extent of the whole team getting that world championship mentality in place and you know Understanding what their consistency level is to take it though You’re right historically McLaren has been it’s not I think Ferrari may be the most successful team in Grand Prix history But McLaren’s second might be wrong there But yeah It would be good to see them back to the glory dailies and it would be fantastic for us to you know See McLaren’s naming back in the wheels circle At the very, very top.

Absolutely, yeah, I know you’re right. Yeah, they are the second most, uh, successful team, depending on how you define it. Some people might say Williams because they have one more Constructors Championship, but if you go by wins and a few other stats, I think Drivers Championships as well. It’s, it’s McLaren number two, overall.

On, on that with the driver combination for, uh, For McLaren, if I can just touch on that for a moment. Obviously, Lando Norris is doing incredibly well. I feel like his, uh, I feel like his tyre preservation is probably the main differential right now between him and Oscar Piastri. But it is, especially as he’s heading into 2025, where Red Bull have already signed Perez for next year, and the year after that as well, I believe.

Is that driver combination of McLaren’s good enough to win a Constructors Championship? Because I would argue, if you average out the two drivers, They’ve potentially got the best driver combination on the grid. I think you’re probably right, in terms of the strongest combination, because I do think Piastri has got a huge amount of talent and ability, and I think it’s just a matter of time before that confidence just builds to the next level, and he hits home with a sweet spot with just getting the car to work to his liking.

And I think he’ll be right alongside Lando, so I think, you know, there is a bright future and I think the team can probably see that, hence why they’re re adapting on their side of things to go to the next stage. But, you know, I think it’s a nice balance as well as McLaren because they’ve got youth and they’ve got youth and experience there of Lando.

And I think, you know, that’s a great thing to nurture, but what they’ve also got is hunger. That hunger and passion there is gonna be the stuff that drives on. But, you just have to make sure that Lando, in his role at the moment as sort of the team leader, is also evolving in taking the team forward from a pressure point of view of making sure that he gets what he needs to get the job done on the circuit.

and do it over the course of the season. You know, that, that takes a little bit of doing and a bit of experience. So, you know, the likes of the Senators and the Profs of years gone by, and the Mansels, and now, you know, the guys that we had, the Chewbacca’s and everything else, their strokes were outside of the cockpit of a Formula One car as much as what they were inside.

And I think that’s what it’s going to take, you know, with inside McLaren to drive it on. And, and get the most from every single person there at, uh, at Team HQ. Yeah, I think, I think they’ve absolutely got the potential for that. I’m with you on that one. It’s a big step, but once they’ve took it, I think they’ll, I think the momentum could grow from there, really.