In a season that contained no shortage of amazing stories, McLaren’s astonishing turnaround in form earned its place among them – hopelessly off the pace with its all-new car at the end of pre-season, a relentless development push saw it turn the still-far-from-perfect MP4-24 into a two-time race winner.
Considering where it started the campaign, third place in the standings was therefore a highly commendable achievement, even if 2009 was hardly the kind of title defence either the team or Lewis Hamilton had been expecting.
By its habitual standards, McLaren had a terrible 2009 season – with the car starting off so bad that not only was Lewis Hamilton unable to defend his title, at times he was unable to get into Q2.
But the way it recovered its form was perhaps even more impressive than its championship successes, as the team went from being slowest of all to winning twice and finishing third in the constructors’ standings.
The year started with a change at the top, as Ron Dennis handed over the team boss role to long-time sidekick Martin Whitmarsh.
A baptism of fire followed for Whitmarsh – for massive aerodynamic shortcomings left McLaren 3s off the pace in winter testing.
Mechanical problems compounded the lack of speed in Melbourne qualifying, but there was huge relief and jubilation when Hamilton charged from the back to third.
That was followed by more agony, as Hamilton and sporting director Dave Ryan were found to have misled the stewards over an otherwise minor incident with Jarno Trulli behind the safety car.
Hamilton was disqualified and made a humbling apology in front of the media at the next race, while popular team stalwart Dave Ryan was reluctantly suspended.
Dennis also moved right away from the Formula 1 part of the company after this latest scandal, and McLaren then kept a relatively low-profile through the FOTA/FIA war.
Wet races in Malaysia and China allowed McLaren to salvage a few points, but it looked like its saving grace would be the excellent Mercedes KERS, which boosted Hamilton to fourth in Bahrain, where he had qualified fifth and run as high as second.
The car remained fundamentally bad when fast corner balance was required, its poor front end aerodynamic hampering the whole airflow.
That led to a series of miserable early summer races, exemplified by Silverstone – where Hamilton started 19th and finished 16th for no reason other than that being the chassis’ natural pace.
With the car much better on slow tracks, it looked like Monaco might be McLaren’s only chance of a good result all year, so there was despair when Hamilton – having flown in practice – crashed in Q1, consigning him to 16th on the grid and a race day in the midfield traffic.
Front wing tweaks, sidepod changes and a revised diffuser for the Nurburgring didn’t solve all McLaren’s problems, but still made such a big difference that Hamilton was screaming down the radio with delight on his first practice lap.
Although his race was ruined by a turn one brush with Mark Webber, McLaren was clearly back in business, as Lewis underlined next time out by brilliantly winning in Hungary – just two races after starting on the back row at home.
Spa’s fast sweeps were still painful for McLaren, and in Valencia and Italy Brawn was too fast for Hamilton to convert his pole into a win (Lewis crashing out of third at Monza on the last lap as he made a final push to catch Jenson Button), but another commanding win followed in Singapore.
Yet more new parts allowed Hamilton to mount the podium even at the aerodynamically-challenging Suzuka, and even after a strategy miscue in the qualifying rain left him on the penultimate row at Interlagos.
He would have blitzed the field in Abu Dhabi too, had his brakes not malfunctioned in the race after a dominant Friday and Saturday.
It was one of the most remarkable turnarounds in F1 history, and although others in McLaren’s position had written off their 2009 cars and focused on 2010 instead, Whitmarsh was adamant that the improvements his team was making this year would translate into next season too.
McLaren then pulled off a major post-season coup by luring reigning world champion Button away from Brawn to join his predecessor and compatriot Hamilton.
That meant farewell to the much-loved but disappointing Heikki Kovalainen.
When the car was at its worst, Kovalainen sometimes had the edge on Hamilton – although early incidents at the first two races meant he didn’t complete a racing lap until round three.
Hamilton was faster in the wet at Shanghai, but had three spins to Kovalainen’s none, so Heikki beat his team-mate to fifth.
After that, the Finn’s year was largely frustrating.
The rate at which developments were being hurried out sometimes meant there were only enough new parts for Hamilton’s car.
But even when they had equipment parity, and even when Kovalainen produced a blinding qualifying performance like his heavily-fuelled fourth on the Monza grid, the number two car tended to drift backwards in the races.
The ever-evolving McLaren had developed away from Kovalainen’s driving style, leading to frustration and a drop in confidence, as the Finn recognised that his job was on the line, but struggled more the harder he tried.
His old employers would still love to see him flourish elsewhere (with Lotus his first opportunity in 2010), for the genial Finn has more talent than he showed this year.
But McLaren will stride on without him – with two world champions on its books it needs to be correct in its insistence that it didn’t compromise its 2010 prospects by pushing too hard on its 2009 recovery.
Highlight: Hamilton’s morale-boosting win in Hungary.
Lowlight: The Melbourne ‘lying’ scandal, just what the team didn’t need when it already had a poor car to deal with.
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