Is McLaren a victim of displaced priorities?

The 2019 F1 season was a season of transformation for McLaren as the team had a new driver line-up in Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris. The two drivers helped the team secure P4 in the championship.

Things got even better in the next couple of years as McLaren returned to the top 3 of the Championship standings for the first time since 2012.

The team got its first win and pole position in 2021 and things were looking up. However, the progress has since then plateaued. The 2022 F1 season saw the team finish P5 in the championship and the prospect of returning to the front now seems bleak.

Not living up to the standards of its glorious past does raise questions over whether the Woking-based squad is suffering from a case of misplaced priorities.

The regressive trend of the last few years

McLaren peaked in 2020 when the team secured multiple podiums and finished the season behind only Mercedes and Red Bull. The 2021 F1 season was a season of some impressive highs for McLaren.

The team got their first win since 2012 with a 1-2 finish from Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris in Monza. Then there was the pole position at Sochi that was almost converted to a win by Norris.

However, the team dropped behind Ferrari in the championship that season. McLaren finished the season P4 in the standings, one position lower than where it was in the previous season. The 2022 F1 season, the one with the new regulations, saw McLaren as a potential dark horse.

However, that was not the case as the team struggled with the package it brought. Ferrari, a team that McLaren had been fighting against in 2021, took the next step to the front of the grid but the Woking-based squad could not.

To make things worse, the team took another hit as even Alpine jumped the queue to finish P4 in the championship. Since the highs of the 2020 F1 season, there has been a steady decline in form.

Poaching too many drivers with no seats for them

In terms of displaced priorities, one has to question the appetite of a team if it creates a pool of almost half a dozen drivers to replace its current driver. The 2022 F1 season saw one too many names associated with Daniel Ricciardo's seat.

It started with Pato O'Ward, then Colton Herta became the frontrunner, then Alex Palou was poached from Chip Ganassi in Indycar. There were rumors of a move for Pierre Gasly, and finally, Oscar Piastri was poached from Alpine.

It's not a bad thing to put an emphasis on the driver that is going to drive the car. There is, however, a question of how much is too much. While Alpine did lose out against McLaren when it came to Piastri, the French team won the most important battle of the season as it trumped the Woking-based squad in the championship.

At the end of the day, the primary focus has to be the tools of the trade that a driver uses. More often than not, a good driver can only paper over so many weaknesses of the car. However, a good car can paper over far too many of them from the driver.

McLaren went the other route and lost out to Alpine. To add to this, it left drivers like Palou and O'Ward disgruntled as they were lured by the prospect of an opportunity in F1.

Andreas Seidl's departure from McLaren

Arguably the biggest shocker of them all has to be Andreas Seidl leaving the team. Seidl was at the forefront of bringing the team back to the front of the midfield. Ever since he took over, the team has shown impressive growth and he was rated very highly by the drivers and within the team.

The issue with Seidl's departure is that it not only leaves a huge hole within the team, it is also a damning indictment of the future prospects of the Woking-based squad. Seidl decided it was better to move to a budding new F1 team in Audi that debuts in 2026 than stick with McLaren and try to win the title there.

Just like anyone else closely monitoring how things are being carried out and the subsequent results, it has become clear that the team needs to realign the focus back to the car.