Why Vettel’s 2013 charge has given McLaren F1 title belief

McLaren says that four-time champion Sebastian Vettel’s then record-breaking run of nine successive wins in the second half of 2013 shows why it is right to dream of a Formula 1 title double.

Lando Norris’s dominant victory in the Dutch Grand Prix has ignited both his and McLaren’s championship hopes, even though Max Verstappen and Red Bull still have a decent advantage in their relevant points standings.

But based on the scale of advantage Norris delivered at Zandvoort, to produce the biggest winning margin of 2024 in coming home 22.896 seconds in front of Verstappen, there is a trajectory that gives McLaren hopes in both the teams and individual battles.

In the constructors’ championship, McLaren is now just 30 points behind Red Bull, having slashed into its competitors’ advantage by 12 points over the weekend.

In the drivers’ battle, Norris is now 70 points behind Verstappen after taking eight points out of his lead for both the win and fastest lap. Should he repeat that victory/fastest lap feat over the remaining nine races of the season then that would be enough to end the year as champion.

Such a run of form is a tough ask, but McLaren says it has looked back at history – and especially the way Vettel and Red Bull took a total stranglehold on F1 after the summer break in 2013 – to show that that level of dominance is entirely possible.

Vettel had endured a tough challenge with both Mercedes and Ferrari for race wins over the first half of 2013, but the situation changed dramatically when F1 returned from the summer shutdown.

From the Belgian Grand Prix, Vettel proved to be in a class of his own as he won all nine races through to the season finale in Belgium to secure his fourth and final crown.

The McLaren trophy delegate sprays Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, 1st position, with Champagne on the podium

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

Speaking after the Dutch GP, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said that McLaren had taken note of what Vettel did more than a decade ago to put its current challenge in context.

Asked if it was now game on in both championships, Stella said: “I think in the constructors’ championship, the game was on even before this event.

“In the drivers’ championship, we definitely wanted to keep our head and our focus on the fact that it was possible. We even talked and looked at what Vettel did in 2013 and we said: ‘we may do the same. Why not?' We need to keep the focus. We need to think this is possible.”

While Stella explained over the Dutch GP weekend that he felt the team’s form at Zandvoort was flattered by track characteristics, he conceded that what it produced in the race was far beyond what it thought was possible.

“I have to say it was very encouraging from a performance point of view,” he said.

“At the same time, it happens at a track that seems to be just very suitable for our car, like Hungary was. Even after Hungary, the [public] said, 'Ah, it's going to be P1, P2 every race'. But it's not. That just seems to be very track dependent at the moment.

“But this was definitely beyond expectation in terms of qualifying performance, in terms of race performance, and to some extent even the tyre degradation was very good, to the point that Lando scored the fastest lap of the race at the last lap.”

While Stella thinks the current situation is one that means it can ponder world championship success, Norris himself felt it was not right to think about such things.

“I've been fighting for the championship since the first race of the year. There's no sudden decision now," he said.

"I need to do better. I've been working hard the whole year and I'm still 70 points behind Max. So it's pretty stupid to think of anything at the minute.

“I just take one race at a time and just keep doing what I'm doing now because there's no point in thinking ahead and thinking of the rest.”