🔗 Share this article

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

McLaren are well aware of the difficulty they face with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this year, but they see no reason to modify their method to running the team.

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

"This represents the manner we plan racing. This is the way in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari messed up their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Andrea Stella said following the race in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

"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 third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by the calculations."

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

All teams this season have had to confront the conundrum of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

McLaren began this season with the fastest car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They continued to develop it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the car performance and continue delivering good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a perfect race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

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

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

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules 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 understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know Next Year's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next year, nobody will understand how the teams are looking next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to understand their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Sakhir on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain indication of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's only at the season opener that the complete and precise picture will emerge.