🔗 Share this article

Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

The McLaren team are well aware of the challenge they face with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to alter their strategy to managing the team.

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

"This represents the way we intend racing. This is the way in which we approach competition, and we aim to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous championship fights. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he missed out on the title as 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 Red Bull to sneak the title from their grasp.

Stella commented after the race in Texas: "We view the next five races as chances to extend the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

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

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

McLaren began this season with the fastest car, after putting a lot of technical development into their 2025 design.

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

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 principal Andrea Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the performance and keep delivering strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's correct that both Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now 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 "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is currently much closer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, 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 favourite circuits, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to argue that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

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

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all struggle in this way.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

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

The initial session, in Barcelona 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 media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain indication of comparative speed becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate picture will become clear.