Ex-McLaren mechanic Priestley talks Canadian GP, title fight, Hamilton

We chatted with former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley in Montreal at Explorance World about the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix, McLaren, Lewis Hamilton, and life in pit lane.

Priestley was a mechanic and pit crew member for McLaren from 2000 to 2009 and worked with championship-winning drivers Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, and Kimi Raikkonen. He's also written two books: "The Mechanic," about his experience in the pit lane, and the upcoming "Pitlane Lessons," about what Formula 1 can teach you about life, releasing in October.

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

theScore: You've worked with many incredible drivers. What's one thing they did that made them great?

Priestley: Hamilton, for example, who is the greatest driver in the history of the sport. He's won more races than anybody else. I can look back at his story now with hindsight and say, "Well, actually, there were some real clear signs." We didn't necessarily see that he was going to go on to do these things back then, but I can now say his work ethic was unbelievable, and still is. He still works harder than most drivers on the grid, even in his 40s. He was perhaps the most complete driver that I ever worked with, so he maximized everything at his disposal from the technical side to the human performance side.

Raikkonen, who I worked with for many years, a Finnish racing driver who was probably the fastest racing driver I ever worked with, particularly over one lap in the mid 2000s. I don't think anyone was faster than him, but he was a long way from being the complete driver because he didn't do what Lewis did. And that wasn't to say that was a failing of Kimi. He didn't want to do what Lewis did. He wanted to just get in the car (and) drive it as fast as he could. And he won a world championship, so you can't really say that was a failure. He was successful.

theScore: You were around for that 2007 title fight (with Alonso and Hamilton), which got dicey. Do you have any advice for present-day McLaren to avoid a repeat of that?

Priestley: I have a lot of friends still at McLaren and they're well aware that the situation they're in now is probably the closest they've been to back in 2007. The championship is almost certainly gonna go down to one or the other of those two drivers (Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri), and history will tell you there's rarely ever an occasion when that does not end in tears. There's a very real possibility that will happen this year, despite whatever efforts McLaren put in place to protect it.

But what they have done, and they are doing, is (based on) the lessons they've learned from all of those past experiences. It's about treating them with transparency so that each driver knows they've got the same equal opportunities. There's no kind of favoritism, there's no new components or updates going to one driver over another, strategic decisions are going to be equally spread out amongst the drivers. So, if a driver knows there's no priority going to the opposite driver, they feel like they've got the same equal chance to win a championship. And if that's the case, it comes down to you as an individual making the difference on a particular day.

theScore: What do you think is the biggest factor behind Piastri's emergence this year?

Priestley: I don't think it's some amazing new emergence. I think he's been incrementally creeping towards this. The way that he's learned over last year with McLaren, then with a car this year that's a tiny bit different and requires a slightly different set of characteristics from a driver - it suited him a little bit more or he's adapted his style certainly to suit this car. So, he's getting the best out of it. But the other traits that are obvious to me is that he seems to deal with pressure very well. For such a young guy, he rarely ever seems to get flustered, particularly when that pressure ramps up in qualifying. That seems to be one of his real strong points. And that will stand him in really good stead as the season goes on.

theScore: Norris is someone we've seen be hard on himself when things don't go right. Have you ever seen a driver dejected in the garage and how have they picked themselves up?

Priestley: Lando is hard on himself but we only ever see him really interviewed as he's just getting out of the car. The adrenaline is still flowing, the disappointment is at its peak moment when you tend to get a microphone shoved in in your face. And then he says it how it is, and I respect that. What I do know about Lando is: that's on a Sunday, (and) on a Monday he's back. You know, he switches it round, it's a reset moment for him. He's fully focused on the next event.

I think Lando's actually way better than most people see and give him credit for dealing with that. It's just the time he gets interviewed is normally the moment when it's at its worst.

theScore: Why do you think Hamilton's Ferrari start hasn't taken off like some expected?

Priestley: I do have a couple of theories. One is that it's actually a massive transition to swap teams, especially in the current era. I think there's a huge amount of adaptation to make. (Firstly), driving a different car because they all have different requirements and characteristics. There's a whole bunch of different systems that you have to get your head around: different team, engineers, and mechanics. You've got to build relationships and those relationships matter. They enable a smooth operation over a weekend. You can't just build a relationship in a flash - it takes time.

I don't think Lewis has lost his edge, his talent, or ability. You go back to China when he had that run in the sprint race and he dominated and won. I think that shows you he's still got it. I know that Lewis still works as hard as ever.

I think this current era, the ground-effect era of Formula 1, isn't the most suited to the way Lewis drives these cars and his results in this era would tend to back that up. We change everything next year and there's going to be a different set of requirements from a driver, a different set of characteristics from all of these cars. It's something of a lottery as to who's gonna come out of that looking great. It could be that Ferrari deliver a great car, that car suits Lewis' style, and there's no reason to say that Lewis could not find himself in a championship fight next year, which would be the most amazing story. I think that's what he's got his hopes penned on. This year is all about learning to build those relationships, work with the team, fully focused on a real opportunity in 2026.

theScore: A bit of good news for Lewis is he's coming to Montreal, which is a track where he's had so much success. Can you sense a different vibe around a driver when he comes to a track where he's been successful?

Priestley: 100% and that's absolutely the case here at Montreal for Lewis. He won his first-ever race here and I was lucky enough to be part of that. It was an amazing day. The way he likes to drive suits what's required from this particular racetrack. So, I think he absolutely will bring confidence into this event. Lewis is a driver whose confidence absolutely shifts his performance. We all do to some extent, but I think with him it's maybe a little bit more than some others. So, coming in here to this event, although he's got a car that's still slightly tricky to drive, he will have an extra amount of confidence just because it's Montreal.

theScore: What are your general expectations for this weekend?

Priestley: I think it's gonna be McLaren dominating. They have a car that is proving that it just works well on pretty much every type of circuit and in pretty much all types of conditions. There are some circuits where it's not that they fall away but it's actually others like (Max) Verstappen in the Red Bull (who excel) ... particularly high speed, long-duration corners (that) the Red Bull tends to get a little bit closer, but that's not what this circuit is. This is much more about big stops on the brakes, slower corners, and then really high-speed stuff. I think you're going to see McLaren dominate. The biggest question - and I don't know the answer, but that's what's great about it - is that I don't know which one of the two McLaren drivers is gonna come out in front.