Despite winning the 2024 Constructors’ Championship, we entered 2025 with an air of caution. Things can change quickly in Formula 1 - our own transformation from the back of the grid to the front in 2023 is evidence of that – and in the final year of this current regulations cycle, there were five or six teams all capable of emerging at the front in the new season.

There had been a period in 2024 where the MCL38 was the quickest on the grid, but by the final race, others had closed the gap. Our design team said ahead of the season that they had sought to keep us at the front by taking risks. 

And so, the opening races in Australia and China proved pivotal, backing up the design route our team had taken.

The pace of the MCL39 was evident from Qualifying in Round 1, as Lando clinched and won from Pole. Then in the second round, Oscar showed that the car's speed in Australia was no flash in the pan, taking a maiden F1 Pole and controlling the Grand Prix to convert it into a victory at the first time of asking.

The first two rounds set the tone, but it was the following seven that established us as a dominant force. Our advantage at the top of the standings increased rapidly from 21 points after Round 2, to 197 after Round 9.

After finishing second and third in Round 3 at Suzuka, the team went on to win three in a row, and five of the next six races.  

During this stretch of races, Oscar became just the third McLaren driver in history to notch eight consecutive podiums, equalling the records of Ayrton Senna (1988) and Lewis Hamilton (2007). Including China, Oscar won four Grands Prix in this period, three dominantly from Pole position and two from further back, including from second in Saudi Arabia and fourth in Miami.  

In doing so, he had eked out a minor advantage in the Drivers’ Championship battle, only 10 points ahead of Lando but 49 in front of third place. However, there was still a long, long way to go.

Every single win is memorable, but some do just mean that little bit more.

After a difficult decade in which victories became rare, we had found our winning touch again in 2024. But as we rolled into 2025, a few high-profile trophies still eluded us - races we either hadn’t won for years, or at all.

In Round 4, at the 21st attempt, Oscar clinched our first win in Bahrain – our ‘second home Grand Prix’. The Australian’s lights-to-flag victory made him the first repeat winner of the season, as he dominated the race despite struggling to draw water from his drinks bottle in scorching 30-degree heat.

McLaren have enjoyed a special relationship with the Monaco Grand Prix ever since Alain Prost’s first win for us there in 1984, but we hadn’t triumphed in the principality since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Lando changed that in style, converting Pole into a record-extending 16th Monaco victory, our most at any F1 venue.

Next on the list was the British Grand Prix. Our last home win also thanks to Hamilton in 2008. This time, Lando charged from third to the top step, becoming the 13th British driver to win the British Grand Prix for any team, and only the fifth to do so for McLaren.

Having started the 2010s with 44 Grand Prix 1-2s, it would take us another 15 years to earn the six we needed to hit 50 – a milestone we finally achieved at this year’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Since then, we’ve added another six, taking our season’s total to seven - our highest since 1988. And for the first time since that remarkable year, and only the second time in our history, we’ve finished first and second in four consecutive Grands Prix, from the Austrian Grand Prix through to the summer break.

What makes this feat even more impressive is the context. While we don’t need to relive it, the race prior in Canada had been our toughest of the season so far.  

The response mattered. With a weekend off between Canada and Austria, and valuable time back at base to reset, our drivers looked to have found another gear in the races since that Sunday in Montreal, fighting at the front while racing with both skill and respect.

Not every race can or will go our way, but the aim is clear: carry this momentum beyond the summer break, and meet any setback with the same resilience as we did in Austria.

In the final race before F1’s annual shutdown from racing, we clinched a historic 200th Grand Prix win, becoming just the second team to achieve such a feat 

It was a proud moment for the entire team, each of whom has played a critical role in our gradual rebuild and eventual return to winning ways. They join a long list of key contributors to McLaren’s double century of wins, each generation carrying forward the legacy of those who came before them.

That list includes 22 winning drivers, without whom this wouldn’t have been possible. Five of those have contributed more than 10 wins to the cause, while Lando and Oscar aren’t far behind that benchmark, with nine and eight, respectively. At the top of the list sits the inimitable Ayrton Senna, whose 35 wins remain unmatched in our history.

Within those 200 victories are some of Formula 1’s most unforgettable moments, and while we’re proud of the journey so far, our focus remains on the road ahead. This season has already delivered many highlights, and as we push towards the end of the year, we’ll give everything in pursuit of the Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships, as we look to create new history.

We can't wait to get back out there at the end of August. See you in Zandvoort, Papaya Army.