🔗 Share this article

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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the obstacle they confront with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to alter their strategy to managing the team.

They will persist to provide both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the approach we plan racing. This is the way in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He claimed the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Andrea Stella said following the race in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the case 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 benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Austin had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the car performance and keep executing strong race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a perfect race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely accurate premise. It's true that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

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

Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying or race.

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

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on balance Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges 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?

Before the cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the teams wanted to understand their first running of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of comparative speed becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise picture will become clear.