McLaren keen to build dominant motorsport dynasty with Formula E team hungry for success

Formula E concluded its tenth season in style at London's ExCel for a sold-out doubleheader on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday's race had several drivers still in contention for the 2024 title, but by the time Sunday came around, it was wittled down to three: Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein and Jaguar duo Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy.

Wehrlein was eventually crowned Formula E world champion after finishing second behind Oliver Rowland in Round 16, leaving the Jaguar garage feeling bitter-sweet, leaving London with the constructors' crown - but title-less on the driver front. As for NEOM McLaren, they had to watch two motorsport greats fight it out for the title.

However, like in Formula 1, where on Sunday Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris completed a 1-2 in Hungary, as well as competitive IndyCar, Extreme E and esports outfits, the Formula E faction is confident in helping McLaren build a motorsport dynasty in the seasons to come. Sam Bird took victory in Sao Paulo this year and Jake Hughes came close in Shanghai, China.

"As the Neon McLaren Formula E team, but as part of McLaren Racing overall, our aspirations are to challenge for race wins and ultimately the championship as well," team boss Ian James told Express Sport.

"We're not in the position, or we're not finishing the season in the position that we aspire to, so clearly there's some work to be done on that. Having said that, there have been some real highlights as well. The first win for NEOM McLaren in Sao Paulo this year with Sam, Jake's first podium in Shanghai and a few pole positions thrown in for good measure as well. So we know we've got what it takes, what's lacking is consistency, so that's what we're going to be focused on."

Consistency has been the bane of McLaren's existence in the electric series this year. However, work has already begun with manufacturing partners to prepare the team for season 11. James says working with Nissan is hoping to produce a strong, competitive package. "I think that we're looking forward to going to next season, because it's the second homologation cycle within Gen 3, so working together with our manufacturing partner with Nissan and just making sure that we've got the strongest package possible," James added.

"We know that the current package isn't the most efficient on the grid and there's some other areas that can be improved as well, so they've been working hard in the background on that, getting us ready for next season. Being perfectly honest, we've only had one occasion so far where we've got both cars into the points and you need to be getting both cars into the points regularly if you're going to be challenging for the championship."

It was a weekend to forget for McLaren's all-British driver line-up, with the best result coming from Bird on Saturday, where he finished eighth. In Sunday's season finale, Bird's race ended early following a collision with Jehan Daruvala, while Hughes crossed the line in 11th. "I think we could be comfortably on double the points that we're on as a team, but things just haven't quite fallen our way. I mean, from breaking my hand and having to have surgery, to front wings falling over me, to even yesterday, being in the wrong place at the wrong time with nothing that I could do about it. That's racing sometimes," Bird said.

"Sometimes you get the rubber of the green, sometimes you don't. But I'm very proud of what the team have done this year. I think we've worked extremely hard, I think we've made a lot of progress, and it gives me a lot of confidence going forward," Bird added.

The potential of McLaren and Formula E as a series is obvious to the eye. In three generations, Formula E cars have dramatically dropped in weight yet made huge gains in maximum power, maximum regeneration, energy recovery and top speeds. "I think Formula E is really setting the benchmark now in terms of innovation in motorsport," James said. "We're now in our third generation, we're going to see a real performance uplift next year with the Gen 3 Evo car and then in two years' time when we launch Gen 4, that's going to be an absolute game changer as well. The pace is relentless, but that's really positive and it's showing really the power of electric vehicles, especially here in motorsport as well."

"I think that's why it's so attractive for the manufacturers. We've already seen a number of the existing manufacturers commit to Gen 4 and I've got no doubt that new manufacturers are going to be coming in as well. So that really is a good indicator as to the health of the sport," James continued. Hughes shares the same sentiment. The ExCel was packed all weekend and Formula E drew large crowds all over the world.

"Cricket, golf, football have all had hundreds of years of headstarts, even F1 is 70 years in," he told Express Sport pre-race. "Formula E is a complete outlier in that sense, and the fact that we can come to places like London, to Tokyo, to Mexico, and attract the fanbase we already do, and put on the races that we do, I think is a huge feather in its cap, and it's only going to go one way. I feel the cars are always getting faster, more efficient, more technologically advanced, and I think fans are grabbing on to that as well."