How McLaren can win F1 Constructors' Championship at Azerbaijan GP and records in sight for team in 2025

McLaren's 2025 season is proving to be one of the most successful of all time and has set up a first chance for the team to wrap up their landmark 10th Constructors’ Championship at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on September 21.

Amid Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris' exclusive duel for the Drivers' Championship, it has been a matter of when, and not if, McLaren will retain the Constructors' Championship they won for the first time in 26 years last season from very early on in this campaign.

Although they suffered a rare race-day defeat in 2025 to Red Bull's Max Verstappen last time out at the Italian Grand Prix, Norris and Piastri's latest double podium saw the team further increase their already-mammoth constructors' lead to 337 points over second-placed Ferrari with eight rounds left.

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There are now only a maximum of 389 points remaining for a team to score this season heading to Azerbaijan and only 346 points will be left after the Baku weekend.

McLaren's huge post-Monza lead has therefore opened up a first opportunity for them to wrap up the Constructors' Championship as early as the next event.

To do so, McLaren must be 346 points ahead of the second-placed team in the standings by the end of the 51-lap race.

That will happen in Baku IF they:

• Outscore Ferrari by nine points or more

AND

• Not be outscored by Mercedes by 12 points or more

AND

• Not be outscored by Red Bull by 33 points or more

While there are numerous permutations for how the above can happen, what is absolutely certain is that another 1-2 McLaren race finish would emphatically seal them the 2025 constructors' crown, regardless of what their rivals do.

A Ferrari win, wherever Piastri and Norris finish, would make them wait at least another two weeks until Singapore.

But the coronation appears likely to happen in Baku too going by the season's results so far.

McLaren have outscored Ferrari by at least nine points in every race weekend this season apart from Canada - when the Scuderia outscored them, by six - while Montreal is also the only weekend that Mercedes (by 28 points) and Red Bull (by six points) have outpointed the Woking team too.

And even if McLaren's Baku weekend goes awry and they don't score the result they need, it seems almost certain they would wrap things up at the second time of asking a fortnight later in Singapore given they would only require a lead at the end of that October 5 race of 303 points - 43 points fewer than the total they currently lead by.

What records can McLaren break over rest of 2025?

Constructors' champions with most races left

Record - 6 (Red Bull, 2023)

Were McLaren to indeed wrap things up as early as Baku, the season's 17th round, then they would become the first team to be constructors' champions with as many as seven race weekends remaining in the season.

Red Bull set a new record of six grands prix remaining when they won the title in 2023.

Most points in a season

Record - 860 (Red Bull, 2023); McLaren's current total - 617

First, it is worth pointing out the many caveats that come with points records in F1.

The steady addition of more grands prix - plus latterly the advent of points-paying sprints - to the calendar and changes to the sport's scoring system (the last fundamental overhaul of which came in 2010) mean comparing driver or team records from across history is nowhere near like-for-like.

Still, the respective records are still there in the history books and therefore there to be broken, and McLaren could beat Red Bull's mark of 860 points in a season set as recently as 2023 when they won all but one of that year's 22 grands prix.

Red Bull's average points per race across those 22 rounds was 39.09, McLaren's average across the first 15 of this year is 38.6. Were they to sustain that, then they would clear the 900-point barrier for the first time.

Largest constructors' winning margin

Record - 451 points (Red Bull, 2023); McLaren's current lead - 337 points

Another record that McLaren can take away from Red Bull, aided by there being two more grands prix than two years ago. Given the way the Woking team have relentlessly raced away at the top of the standings this year with two front-running drivers, this is another feasible achievement.

Most podiums in a season

Record - 33 (Mercedes, 2016); McLaren's current total - 27

This is a record that certainly should go given there are 16 podiums still up for grabs for a McLaren car this season and the team only need seven more to surpass Mercedes' 2016 total, when the season ran to 21 rounds.

Most fastest laps in a season

Record - 14 (Ferrari, 2004); McLaren's current total - 11

Fastest race laps no longer carry a bonus point, so their significance has lessened, but with 69 per cent of them going to one of the two papaya cars so far this season, this is another record that should fall McLaren's way.

Most McLaren wins in a season

Record - 15 (1988, from 16 races), McLaren's current total - 12

While they will of course not beat the near-perfect percentage from 1988, McLaren should record more wins than they ever have in a single campaign this year with eight rounds left to get four more wins.

Formula 1 heads to Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime

(c) Sky Sports 2025: How McLaren can win F1 Constructors' Championship at Azerbaijan GP and records in sight for team in 2025