A customer team in F1 capable of winning the constructors' championship? This is what McLaren F1 managed to do in 2024, with a Mercedes engine.
But to achieve this, it took the intervention of the FIA a few years ago.
And that's what McLaren CEO Zak Brown is welcoming today, who is keen to point out that engine parity was one of the main reasons for the team's title success in 2024.
It was in 2018 that F1's governing body intervened to ensure that engine manufacturers had to provide factory and customer teams with the same powertrain specifications, both in terms of components and in terms of maps ( the different software operating modes of the engine).
Indeed, during the first four years of the turbo hybrid era (from 2014 to 2017), some customer teams did not have access to the same settings as the factory team. Thus, in 2024, McLaren became the first team in the turbo hybrid era to win a championship as a customer team.
“The biggest change, the one that brought total parity, is that the engine mapping must be the same for all users of the same engine.”
“That was the difference between a factory team and a customer team, there were all these different power modes that we had that didn’t have to be the same.”
“As soon as this rule came into effect, I was completely confident that we could remove the engine from Lewis' car [Hamilton] and put it in Lando's car and vice versa. It’s the same powertrain.”
“The advantage of the factory team is that they are a little more aware of the integration and packaging of the engine, so when they start designing their car, they will have a little 'advance at this level.'
“But we proved that if you do a great job, you can overcome this.”
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