Can McLaren Keep Playing Fair and Stop Verstappen? - Formula 1 Questions and Answers

Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

McLaren are well aware 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 running the team.

They will continue to give their two drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This is the way we intend competing. This remains the way in which we approach competition, and we want to stay fair, and we intend to apply equality to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous championship fights. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he missed out on the championship as race engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari messed up their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to extend the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

Every team this year have had to face the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the major regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

The McLaren team started this season with the best car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They continued to develop it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue maximising the performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the outcome of this season and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

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

Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is now much closer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in F1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will understand how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time a certain sense of relative performance emerges.

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