On Dec. 8, 2024, McLaren won the Formula 1 constructors' championship for the first time since 1998, sealing the title in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with a decisive lights-to-flag victory by Lando Norris.

The British team entered the final race needing to keep Ferrari at arm's length. Instead, it delivered a clean and controlled performance that left little doubt about the outcome. Norris took the checkered flag in front and spoke on team radio in the afterglow of the achievement, while team principal Zak Brown celebrated the result as the product of a long rebuild that had pulled McLaren out of midfield obscurity and back into title contention.

The race itself contained enough chaos to keep the championship tense. McLaren's other driver, Oscar Piastri, spun at the first corner after tangling with Max Verstappen, who later received a 10-second penalty. Ferrari had hopes of overturning the points gap, but Carlos Sainz finished second and Charles Leclerc third, leaving the Italian team short of the 21-point swing it needed. Leclerc had started from 19th after a grid penalty, clawed his way through the field and still could not alter the title equation.

The bigger story was the reset at the top of Formula 1. Red Bull had dominated the previous two seasons, but by the end of 2024 it was no longer in the constructors' fight. Verstappen still secured his fourth straight drivers' championship, but McLaren and Ferrari closed the gap on race pace and made the season far less predictable. That shift is important because the constructors' title is not just about bragging rights; it also carries major prize money and signals where the fastest development program sits.

McLaren's win was also a vindication for Brown, who took over in 2018 and oversaw the team's climb from the lower half of the grid to championship level. Norris's victory in Abu Dhabi capped his breakthrough season, while Ferrari's failure to convert a strong finale into a title only extended its drought, which dates back to 2008.

There were also farewell notes in the paddock. Lewis Hamilton finished fourth in what was his last race for Mercedes, ending the most successful driver-team partnership in the sport's history before moving to Ferrari next year. The race weekend also set up several driver changes for the next season, underscoring how quickly the sport is shifting around the new title picture.

For McLaren, though, the headline is simple: a storied team that had spent years chasing relevance finally turned development, strategy and race-day execution into a championship that had been 26 years in the making.