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While McLaren’s Formula 1 and Extreme E campaigns continue and the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season draws to its own conclusion, on the Formula E side, the team is enjoying the off-season.

However, there’s no lack of work going on: preparations for the 2024 season are well underway, with pre-season testing in Valencia coming up as soon as October 23-27, and there’s plenty that the team want to achieve in the meantime.

With a maiden foray in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship now in the book, we caught up with the Team Principal of the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team and Managing Director of NEOM McLaren Electric Racing, Ian James, to reflect on the past year, and what’s next for McLaren’s first all-electric open-wheel racing programme.

Away from the track, Ian spends most of his time working from the Electric Racing team’s Bicester-based facility but has been a regular visitor to the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking since joining, where he’s able to meet and collaborate with our other teams. 

What to expect from this new challenge

NEOM McLaren wasn’t the only new thing about Formula E this year, with a new car being the headline change going into the category’s ninth season.

“It's always interesting when you go into a season with a new generation of car and new drivers. It's a huge challenge, and you don't know what to expect,” says Ian on whether our first Formula E season had met expectations, whilst speaking from an office in the MTC.

“We actually came out of the starting blocks in reasonably strong fashion. I think that was great in terms of meeting our first expectation of taking a team that had been successful in a previous life and making sure that we got back up and running again.”

McLaren Racing’s entry into Formula E came off the back of Mercedes’ departure, a team that had just secured two Drivers’ and Teams’ title doubles. Ally that with McLaren’s own motorsport pedigree, but the curveball of an all-new car and drivetrain combination (NEOM McLaren being supplied by Nissan), and it made for anything but a straightforward continuation campaign.

“If I reflect on the other end of the season, I don’t think there is one member of the team who would feel that we met expectations because we'd set ourselves up higher than that,” he acknowledges. “I think it's important, though, to recognise why we've fallen short of those expectations, and make sure that we can address that going forward.

“So that's one thing that the team is very much focused on - taking those learnings from the season and using them to look forward.”

High points early on

Nevertheless, the strong start to the season gave the team a spring in its step, with Jake Hughes taking pole position in the third round of the season at one of the team's home races in Saudi Arabia – the same event in which René Rast earned our first podium finish in the series.

“It was a massive positive for us to go through that transition and come out with such a strong result so early on,” says Ian. “That's testament to the operational excellence that we strive for within the team.”

But with such a high point so soon, did it have any downsides? Ian acknowledges the potential pitfalls that could have come from taking a pole and a podium early into the season, but insists that the team had the strength to negate them.

“I think you could be in danger of lulling yourself into a false sense of security, but I've never seen that as an issue within this particular team,” he adds. “I also don’t think that we at any point underestimated the challenge that we still had ahead of us.

“We also didn’t let the fact that we then struggled to replicate that podium position demoralise us. I think that we have the ability to take it one race at a time and understand that we have enough within our control to influence the outcome of those races.

Adapting to the new package

NEOM McLaren’s arrival in Formula E coincided with the introduction of the new Gen3 race car, meaning that it wasn’t just us getting to grips with new machinery. Despite that having the potential to upset the competitive picture, or give the most adaptable teams a leg up, Ian explains that “the biggest lesson is that nothing's changed with Formula E.

“Mainly, it's going to continue to be as competitive as it has always been,” he says. “You never underestimate any changes to the series, especially these generational ones. You can never rest on your laurels.

“But if I look up and down the paddock, there are a number of teams, excellent teams with excellent drivers, who struggled to get to grips with the differences between Gen2 and Gen3.”

Elaborating more specifically on NEOM McLaren’s own performance, Ian points out that while qualifying was clearly a major strength for the team, the races are what it needs to work on the most, along with how it applies itself in those situations as well.

“We struggled with the efficiency of the package overall in the race,” he explains. “The package is strong, it’s very, very quick, and that allowed us to put in some really great qualifying performances. In the races, we tended to fall back from time to time. I don't think there's any one single reason for that.

“There were times when the circuit characteristics and the type of racing didn't necessarily suit the overall package that we had. But by the same token, there are times when we made operational errors, or the drivers made an error. I think we can all reflect on that and make sure we learn from it going forward. It’s about making sure that we get every bit of potential out of that package going into season 10.”

Youth and experience delivers

Emphasising that strong single-lap pace was Jake , a revelation in his rookie season. Jake graduated to a full-time Formula E seat with NEOM McLaren after a spell as Mercedes’ Reserve and Development driver and secured two pole positions – in Monaco and in the second Saudi Arabia race.

“I'm very pleased that our trust in Jake and my faith in Jake has been justified,” Ian says, his smile backing up his words. “I had no doubt whatsoever that he was going to be an excellent driver for us.

“There were still some unknowns. We didn’t know how the pressure - especially in that competitive environment and with the calibre of drivers that you have within the Formula E field - was going to impact Jake in this situation, but he dealt with it admirably.

“He's somebody that has come in and soaked up that competitive challenge and fed off that. Yet, at the same time, he is incredibly personable and incredibly professional as well.

“On his day, he can put in a lap that seemingly comes out of nowhere. I think, by his own admission, he was still honing his race craft at the beginning, but again, that's something that is continuing to develop over the season.”

Alongside him was the vastly experienced René – a veteran of 22 Formula E starts before joining NEOM McLaren and someone whose motorsport CV puts him among the best of his generation. As Ian explains, he was something of an opposite to Jake, but the pair complimented each other perfectly within the team.

“We're fortunate that René and Jake got on well. They're very different characters in certain respects, but they got on very well and were supportive of each other,” Ian says of the almost master and apprentice-like driver dynamic.

“I think René's approach is different to drivers that we've had in the past. He's somebody who is incredibly data-driven and very analytical. He takes his laptop home every night after reading every session and studies and genuinely comes back quicker the next day.”

Looking ahead

Attention now turns to the 2023-24 season, NEOM McLaren’s second in Formula E. While the car and powertrain hardware will remain the same, there will be scope to change a few things in regards to the software, as well as within the team itself as it looks to move up the grid.

“The homologation cycle from a hardware perspective is every two years, so we're going into next year with the same powertrain. However, the software is open, and we are continuing to develop that.

“Operational excellence is something that we have really placed front and centre of what is going to make us successful. We didn't always get that right this season, so we're going to be working on that to make sure we can really control the controllable and get every single detail as it needs to be.”

Another change will be the arrival of one of Formula E’s most experienced and successful drivers in Sam Bird, who Ian says is hungry to succeed in papaya.

“When Jake and René joined last season, you could see that hunger,” he says. “Sam has got vast experience in Formula E, and yet he is just as hungry coming into this next season. When the team can see that, when they can feel that passion and that focus on making sure we really maximise our performances, that's a very, very powerful thing.

“With Sam and Jake, we've got two drivers who are going to be instrumental in making sure that we can wring out every last little bit of performance.”

The 2022-23 campaign was something of a building year for the team as it became part of the McLaren Racing family, but it has given them a strong foundation from which to grow in the coming seasons.

“We have become part of the McLaren Racing family – we had a new colour on the car and a new name, and we used that to refresh things,” he continues. "We used that to enable us to not only take the strengths we had previously but to build on that and to further refine and hone those strengths.

“I think that a significant change like that, if managed in the right way, can actually be a real positive. So, I'm looking forward to continuing on that journey.

“I think one thing is for sure, now we've gone through a full season of Formula E, there's nobody who's looking back at the past. Everybody is now very much part of the McLaren Racing family and proud to wear papaya.”