🔗 Share this article

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

McLaren are well aware of the difficulty they face with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to change their method to running the team.

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

"This is the approach we plan competing. This remains the method in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Andrea Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

Every team this season have had to face the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change scheduled for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

The McLaren team began this season with the best car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the car performance and keep executing good 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 deliver a flawless race."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring much better.

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

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

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

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

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

Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next year 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 Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect most in F1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars run for the first time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are performing next year.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

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

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise situation will emerge.