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Pre-season predictions are often more of a miss than a hit, but David Coulthard’s forecast of McLaren’s 2025 title chances proved to be absolutely spot on.
After winning the 2024 constructors’ championship at the final round of the season, McLaren were naturally tipped to be favourites for the 2025 crown.
But not many thought they would be quite as dominant as they proved to be. Through the performances of the 2025 title-winner Lando Norris and third-place man Oscar Piastri, the Woking-based racing team clinched the constructors’ championship with six rounds remaining.
They amassed 833 points over the course of 24 races, second to Red Bull’s record-breaking 2023 season in the all-time list of points scored in a single season of racing.
Last season’s runners-up, Ferrari, missed out on the title by just 14 points. This year, McLaren achieved more than double that of the Prancing Horse.
What was your favourite moment from Lando Norris’ 2025 F1 title-winning season?
David Coulthard’s pre-season prediction about McLaren’s 2025 title hopes proved to be spot on
During an interview with Channel 4 in January, David Coulthard delivered a very early prediction of the papaya team’s title chances heading into the 2025 season, one that proved to be bang on the money as the season got underway.
Whilst discussing McLaren’s constructors’ title feat in 2024, the first since he was at the team in 1998, Coulthard said, “The thing that I think has made it so special is [that] they’re ahead of their own schedule.
“They just didn’t start the year thinking they were in contention to win it. They’ve been invested in this building schedule over a few years, and then we got a few races in, and suddenly they’re there.
“They’re showing pace. The upgrades are working. The drivers are working beautifully together, and that momentum has carried them to this championship.
“Everything is now set up for them to go into 2025 as the favourites with winning drivers.”
Despite his past ties to the British constructor, the Scottish driver had an unbiased opinion of McLaren during their double championship-winning campaign this year.
Coulthard was critical of the Monza team orders debacle that occurred at a critical time during the season, which was also something that proved to be a crucial aid in Norris’ title hopes.
- READ MORE: David Coulthard believes both McLaren drivers lack one ‘killer’ Michael Schumacher attribute
David Coulthard also highlighted the work of Zak Brown and Andrea Stella in McLaren’s resurgence
Continuing in his assessment of McLaren’s chances ahead of the newly-concluded F1 season, Coulthard praised the work that Zak Brown and Andrea Stella have done behind the scenes in Woking to catapult McLaren back to their winning ways.
He added, “It’s the people. And that name of success that McLaren had in the 90s and 80s and all that — they needed to rebuild.
“They needed to build confidence in the team. They needed to invest in the right people under this leadership, ultimately, of Zak [Brown], who’s an absolute racer, isn’t he?
“He goes out and drives McLarens for fun. And then Andrea Stella had success with Ferrari. He’s put together an engineering team, two young drivers that have blossomed, and the rest is history.”
Interestingly, Stella wasn’t sure of McLaren’s performance heading into the 2025 campaign.
The Italian previously revealed that he had kept his opinion of the progress they had made over the winter break to himself, rather than telling Brown, which ended up being a masterstroke in team management.
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