🔗 Share this article

Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this year, but they don't believe to change their method to running the team.

They will continue to give both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the approach we intend competing. This is the way in which we approach competition, and we want to remain equitable, and we intend to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He claimed the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two races to win the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he missed out on the title as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the title from under their noses.

Stella said following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to face the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

The McLaren team began this year with the best car, after putting a lot of technical development into their 2025 design.

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

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue maximising the performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

"Therefore we have a significant opportunity, and the outcome of this season and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely correct premise. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying or race.

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

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monegasque made his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I believe the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Before the cars run for the initial time in winter testing next year, nobody will understand how the constructors are looking next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to understand their first running 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 some kind of sense of comparative speed becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate picture will emerge.