McLaren aim to make life ‘difficult’ for Lewis Hamilton with ‘extreme’ MCL39

At the end of the F1 2024 season, two teams were in hot contention for the World Constructors’ Championship: McLaren and Ferrari.

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella expects a similar story in 2025 — and even though seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton is joining the rivals, the Woking-based team is prepared to make life “difficult” for the racers in red.

Andrea Stella plans to make life “difficult” for Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari

As the 2024 Formula 1 season came to a close, it wrapped up plenty of loose ends and raised excitement for the coming year.

It took until the checkered flag in Abu Dhabi for the World Constructors’ Championship to be finally wrapped up in McLaren’s favour. Early in the season, the Woking team introduced an upgrade package that changed the name of the game and instead saw the papaya outfit challenging for race wins.

Though Lando Norris was ultimately unable to usurp Max Verstappen in the WDC, it did maintain its grasp on the WCC despite a revitalised Ferrari putting in impressive results at the end of the season. In the end, only 14 points separated Ferrari from the top of the board.

With the WCC wrapped up in Abu Dhabi, it was time to start looking forward — and one of the biggest talking points heading into 2025 has been seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton moving from Mercedes to Ferrari.

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Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the close of the 2024 season, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella was asked for his thoughts on Hamilton’s big move — and beyond all else, Stella sounded excited for things to come.

“To be honest, as a fan of Formula 1, by having been 15 years at Ferrari before, I felt excited myself to see something that is historic for Formula 1: seven-times World Champion going to Ferrari, one of the most iconic teams,” he said.

“I think Ferrari and Hamilton handled this very well, but ultimately I’m sure they know very well that what counts is what’s happening on track. So after the initial excitement, I’m sure they will focus on making sure that the preparation is good.”

That focus on the track has already kicked off, with Hamilton meeting the Scuderia Ferrari staff and taking part in several different tests for the Prancing Horse.

But where does that leave McLaren? Stella is confident.

“On our side, we will try and make life a little bit difficult,” he promised.

Part of that promise seems to stem from the claim that McLaren have opted for a “very extreme” design?for the MCL39 that will debut this year.

Though it isn’t clear exactly what that means, it has been implied by Italian publication?Gazzetta?that it denotes McLaren has pinpointed a few places where the 2025 and 2026 regulations overlap. In effect, the papaya team will be gaining a head start on the 2026 ruleset in entirely legal ways.

Whether or not that extreme design will give the McLaren a leg up remains to be seen, particularly because Ferrari have also pursued a similar developmental strategy. For the Scuderia, its biggest developmental gain has been in pull-rod suspension.

Will Ferrari and Hamilton prove an unstoppable duo? Will Lando Norris help carry this extreme McLaren to new heights? It’s all to play for in 2025.

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