TECH WEEKLY: The key 2024 performance differentiator that saw McLaren usurp Red Bull as the F1 team to beat

The 2024 season goes down in history as one of the most competitively diverse we’ve ever seen. For the first time, four teams achieved one-two race results. But it was McLaren who emerged as the 2024 world champion team.

The competitive switchover from Red Bull dominance to McLaren so often being faster happened at the Miami Grand Prix, round 6 of the championship. This is where McLaren introduced their big upgrade, a crucial part of which was a front wing featuring much more aero-elasticity than before.

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This was game-changing technology, causing a major pivot in the competitive shape of the season. For the reasons why, we need to look at how Red Bull initially mastered the ground effect regulations, introduced in 2022. They found an advantage over everyone through a better integration of suspension and aerodynamics, as explained by Technical Director Pierre Wache.

“We had an aspect of the car which allowed us to rebalance the car, [from track to track],” Wache explains. “We benefitted from this for two years. But now the others have introduced this front wing deflection to allow them to balance the car and in that aspect they are now in front of us.