🔗 Share this article

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

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

They will continue to give their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and balance.

"This represents the manner we plan competing. This is the method in which we approach competition, and we want to stay equitable, and we intend to apply equality to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the title as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he lost the championship as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the championship from under their noses.

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

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

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

Every team this year have had to face the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit 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 continued to develop it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their new underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Austin had he not finished behind Leclerc.

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

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our control. It's not in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely correct premise. It's true that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know Next Year's Competitive Order?

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will know how the constructors are performing next year.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time some kind of sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate situation will become clear.