McLaren started the season on back of a somehow disappointing campaign in 2009, where they have managed to score some important wins in Hungary and Singapore but were unable to get anywhere near the Red Bulls and Brawn GPs.
For the 2010 season, Jenson Button, the reigning world champion, was signed alongside Lewis Hamilton, forming an all-star team with two champions on board. Some said that the team is repeating the same mistake by combining two winning drivers which may result in internal fractions and rivalry that could cost the team dearly, a reminiscent of their ill-fated 2007 season when they literally handed the championship to Ferrari because of the fierce competition between Alonso and Hamilton which resulted in Alonso’s early quit from the team.
Nevertheless, the 2010 season turned out to be a very solid campaign for the all-British team, as they managed the relationship between their two drivers very well, the team made sure Button felt welcome and at home. Probably the Alonso experience in 2007 gave some important lessons to the team on how manage two competitive drivers, after all this is the team that saw the biggest rivalry in F1’s history between the greats Ayrton Senna and Allan Prost.
The relationship went so well on track between both drivers; competing against each other sometimes, and backing up each other throughout the season. The success of this relationship combined with the overall good car they have produced resulted in 5 excellent wins.
One of the brilliant engineering ideas the team came up with was the =F Duct idea and the ever more complex front wings. Initially some teams raised complaints about the F-duct system being considered as a moveable device (banned by the FIA), such coimplaints were refuted by the FIA, allowing other teams to integrate such a system into their cars at later stages of the season.
By the end of the season, and with only three races to go, Button was considered to be almost out of contention, but the team stuck to their driver equality policy, especially that Hamilton’s championship chances were not looking so good either, but he still managed to show up at the last race with a shot at the title behind the Red Bull drivers and Fernando Alonso. The team’s overall good development of their car and the excellent integration of Button into the team during 2010 mean good things for McLaren for the coming seasons as a very stable team, and their start to the 2011 season may produce a very strong campaign against Ferrari and Red Bull.
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