McLaren’s F1 renewal

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Welcome to the 20th edition of Weekly Olio - your weekly dose of laughter, learning, and maybe a little bit of intrigue due to our thought piece (yes, we mean Publisher’s Parmesan here). 🤭

Many thanks for all your support and feedback so far, we hope it continues the same in the coming days and weeks. 😊 

Today’s, Publisher’s Parmesan talks about the revival of the Mclaren Formula 1 team. Once considered a serious challenger for the championships, it has not won a constructor’s championship since 2008. But Zak Brown - the current team director is determined to make radical changes to get back to the front of the grid.

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Life’s Work: An Interview with Jerry Seinfeld - by HBR

Jerry Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for playing a semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), which he created and wrote with Larry David. The show aired on NBC from 1989 until 1998, becoming one of the most acclaimed and popular sitcoms of all time.

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Publisher’s Parmesan 🧀

McLaren’s F1 renewal

In F1, the past is full of legendary moments, but the future is always uncertain. Every team is constantly pushing itself to the limit and seeking that extra edge. Who knows what the future holds, but one thing's for sure — everyone wants to be at the forefront of innovation and racing technology, always pushing to be better and faster.

Formula 1 is like the king of all racing. It's the fastest, most high-tech, and has a pretty wild history. There's been lots of drama and scandals, but it's still quite glamorous.

After over 70 years, Formula 1 is going through some major changes. There are new rules, new tech, new teams, and more people are into it than ever before. But, have you ever wondered what it even takes to put together an F1 team?

So, to get the inside scoop, let's take a look at McLaren HQ. These guys are marking their 60th anniversary and are trying to turn their team into a championship-winning machine. The CEO is Zak Brown, a former racing driver who also founded the world's biggest motorsports marketing agency. Seems impressive, isn’t it?

When Brown joined McLaren in 2016, things were looking pretty grim. The car and the business were both struggling and morale was, well…in the toilet. We're talking worst-year-in-the-history-of-McLaren levels of bad. It finished ninth in the championship and had practically no sponsorship. It seemed lost (or maybe actually lost) and was struggling hard as a Formula 1 team.

But it wasn't always like that. McLaren used to be the shiz back in the '80s and '90s, with legends like Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna behind the wheel. However, the team hasn't won the Constructors' Championship since '98 and the Drivers' Championship since 2008, when Lewis Hamilton was on the squad. Winning is what brings the glory, the big prize money, and the major commercial deals.

Last year too, in 2022, McLaren didn't do so hot. They finished a lame fifth out of the 10 teams and ended up giving Daniel Ricciardo the boot after their collab didn't pan out. But according to Brown, they've made some serious progress since then.

How so? Has anything changed for them? Let’s see.

Over at McLaren HQ, everyone's got their game faces on and is working like crazy to take on the big dogs: Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes. The stakes are mega high, but luckily US Investment Group MSP Sports Capital is dropping £185 million to help McLaren get back on top. With this cash, they're building a brand-new wind tunnel to improve their car's aerodynamics. It's gonna take some time to pay off, but you gotta spend money to make money, right? And in F1, if you're not going all-out to capitalize on your potential, there's no way you're gonna compete for podiums or wins.

In F1, it's a constant game of one-upping the competition. And it's not just about the tech — there's plenty of politics involved too. When someone's got something cool, you gotta decide whether to copy it or protest it. It's a cutthroat world, and if you're not always pushing the limits, you're gonna fall behind. And falling behind in F1 means you're stuck at the back of the pack. It's a never-ending cycle of high pressure and heated competition.

For McLaren, their hopes are pinned on the 23-year-old British-Belgian speedster Lando Norris and the Aussie newbie Oscar Piastri. But what about the 700 other folks on the team?

Just like the drivers are fighting for their place on the podium, McLaren is fighting against the build directors at other teams. Every two weeks, they get judged on how they are performing. That's pretty unique in the business world. Everyone on the team is stoked to see their hard work pay off on the track, and they are always aiming for that perfect balance of speed and reliability. They are like the fast legs of a duck, powering everything forward beneath the surface while the beautiful duck glides above.

It's clear that for McLaren to win championships, it needs to not only race but also develop faster than the competition. Closing the gap means that they must out-develop their rivals as they're constantly moving forward. This means thinking ahead to the '26 car and preparing the team to have the capacity to handle future challenges. To compete at the top, they must keep pushing themselves to be better and faster. While history echoes through the sport, it's the fast legs under the water that keep a team moving in the right direction towards the future.

F1 is a sport where history becomes legend, but what does the future hold? That's anyone's guess, but teams are always pushing the boundaries and striving for that extra edge.

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Peeyush and Mohit

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