🔗 Share this article

Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to modify their strategy to managing the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a basis of equity and balance.

"This is the approach we plan racing. This is the way in which we approach racing, and we want to stay fair, and we intend to apply equality to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the championship as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the championship and allowed Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the title from their grasp.

Andrea Stella commented following the race in Austin: "We look at the next five races as chances to extend the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you reach the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on This Year's Car?

Every team this season have had to confront the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

The McLaren team started this season with the fastest car, after putting a lot of technical development into their 2025 season design.

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the performance and keep executing strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a perfect race."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the result of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate basis. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing much better.

Sainz and Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not all struggle in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect most in Formula 1 would expect not.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Before the cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will understand how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the complete and precise picture will become clear.