🔗 Share this article

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

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to alter their method to running the team.

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

"This is the manner we intend competing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

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

And he lost the title as engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the season and allowed Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the title from their grasp.

Andrea Stella said following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

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

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

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

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Stella stated he thought Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Austin had he not ended up following Leclerc.

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

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the result of this championship and the driver's title is in our control. It's not placed in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an entirely accurate basis. It's correct that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

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

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

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly 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 previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult 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 the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

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

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?

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

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

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

But, as always, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise situation will emerge.