McLaren clinched the Formula 1 constructors’ championship with their sixth grand prix victory of the season last weekend.
The team has been waiting 26 years for its latest title win. This was its ninth, giving them as many as Williams, and only Ferrari have more.
McLaren’s half-dozen wins is the fewest any constructors’ championship-winning team has achieved since 1999, when Ferrari succeeded them, also winning six times. McLaren won seven times that year, and also outstripped their 2024 wins total without taking the title in 2000 (seven), 2005 (10), 2007 (eight, disqualified from the standings) and 2012 (seven).
The race marked the end of Lewis Hamilton’s tremendously successful association with Mercedes’ works team. He joined them from McLaren, and since then Mercedes have taken more wins than McLaren every season, until this year.
Lando Norris’s victory in the season finale meant no driver has taken back-to-back wins over the last 15 grands prix. The last to do so was Max Verstappen in the Canadian and Spanish grands prix. This is the longest run without a consecutive race winner since a 15-round run across the 2012 and 2013 seasons, which was bookended by back-to-back victories for Sebastian Vettel.
Norris scored the fourth victory of his career, giving him as many as Carlos Sainz Jnr who finished second behind him. Dan Gurney, Eddie Irvine and, fittingly, Bruce McLaren are all four-time winners, though only one of McLaren’s wins came at the wheel of a McLaren, unlike all of Norris’s.
Ferrari achieved their best ever result at Yas Marina, getting both their cars onto the podium for the first time. But victory continues to elude them at the circuit adjacent to the Ferrari World Abu Dhabi theme park: In 16 seasons they are still yet to claim a win there.
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Perhaps Hamilton will change that. He has the most victories at Yas Marina of anyone, and is the only driver to have won at the track with two different teams: Four with Mercedes, plus McLaren’s only victory at the track prior to last weekend.
Hamilton’s last-lap pass on George Russell was significant for the battle between the pair of them over the last three years. By passing his team mate, Hamilton ensured he has out-scored him by 697 points to 695 over their time together.
Verstappen could have…
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