While its Formula 1 team was earning its first constructors’ title in 26 years last weekend, McLaren’s Formula E arm was celebrating a landmark result which put it on top of the teams’ standings of the all-electric series for the first time. Not since Mercedes — whose operation was coincidentally absorbed by NEOM McLaren following its exit — in 2021 has the same brand topped both championships at the same time.
Central to McLaren’s recent Formula E success has been rookie sensation Taylor Barnard. Having become the category’s youngest points scorer during his three-race cameo in place of Sam Bird last season, the 20-year-old British driver became the youngest podium finisher when he finished third in last Saturday’s season opener.
“Absolutely not,” Barnard said when asked if he expected to be standing on the podium at the end of the Sao Paulo E-Prix. “I think that’s pretty obvious.”
Barnard spent the first part of the race languishing at the back of the back, something that was compounded by a drive-through penalty for an overuse of energy — something that also caught out teammate Bird — but which ultimately brought both back into contention as it allowed them to save energy which would become crucial during two red flag restarts later in the race.
“From my side, from the team’s side, it was a great execution at the end of the race,” he said. “The second attack was done perfectly to help us propel up the order. Honestly, it’s amazing.”
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In the closing moments of the race, Barnard was breathing down the necks of eventual race winner Mitch Evans and Antonio Felix da Costa. He says temperature and a decrease in tire grip prevented him from advancing further, while Bird held station in fourth to ensure McLaren its best team result in its short Formula E history.
It was indicative of the pair’s relationship. Far from the boiling-over tension that we eventually came to see with the experienced Fernando Alonso and rookie Lewis Hamilton in McLaren’s 2007 F1 campaign, Formula E elder statesman Bird has served as something of a mentor to Barnard ever since he stepped in for the veteran at last season’s Monaco and Berlin races after Bird was ruled out through injury.
“Sam obviously had his unfortunate incident last year, and when I stepped in for him there, he was extremely supportive and helpful to try to get me up to speed, and it’s been exactly the same in my transition as a full-time race driver,” said Barnard. “He’s been so helpful. Obviously, he’s one of the most experienced drivers on this grid, so to have his help and him by my side as a teammate, it’s been amazing.”
Barnard feels the cooperative atmosphere bolstering the whole NEOM McLaren effort.
“The team do a great job at setting up this proper family environment, which makes it very comfortable for a young driver, to support a new driver coming into the team and that will flourish,” he said. “And for him to defend my podium at the end and to egg me on, I think it proves the kind of relationship we have and what mentality we have in the team.”
Asked about Barnard’s breakthrough, Bird told RACER, “I’m thrilled for him. He’s done a great job. Obviously it was a crazy race, and we had to have a bit of a crazy strategy because of the crazy race for us. A lot of stuff was going wrong, and then all of a sudden it fell in our lap.
“I was feeling pretty good. I felt like I could have gone on the offensive to Mitch and Antonio. But it’s his fourth race, first race of the year. He’s fighting two of the most experienced guys in Formula E — Mitch has had 13 wins, I’ve had 12, Antonio’s about 10. Around him, sandwiching him, there’s almost 40 race wins. So it’s not surprising that he just got, ‘Just stay there, get a podium, live to fight another day.’ He did the right thing.
Despite the team’s strong result in Sao Paulo, Bird says NEOM McLaren remains a work in progress.
“We’ve still got a lot of learning to do,” he said. “Operationally, I think we handled the race weekend very well, but there’s some things that we need to improve and tighten up if we want to continue to score those kinds of points.
“I think everybody will be saying the same thing: First race of a new era of the GEN3 (Evo) car and obviously after each race, every team will go away and get plus points, and then you have your negatives. We’ve got a big list of things that we can improve on.”
While gleeful at his own achievement, Barnard shared his teammate’s outlook.
“We should definitely celebrate and enjoy but we have a lot of work to do,” he said. “Qualifying pace was not great, but Nissan was very strong, so it’s a good benchmark for us, a good reference point. We know the powertrain is strong, we just need to execute properly.”