🔗 Share this article

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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the obstacle they face with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to modify their strategy to managing the team.

They will continue to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and balance.

"This represents the way we plan racing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

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

And he missed out on the championship as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the title from their grasp.

Stella said following the race in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to extend the gap on Max. And when it comes to 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 determined by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Stop Upgrades on This Year's Car?

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

In F1, it's typically the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

McLaren started this season 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 finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an easy decision to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the performance and keep delivering strong race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an completely correct basis. It's correct that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is now much closer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque made his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, 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 Formula 1 would expect not.

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

Before the cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will understand how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

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

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

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