🔗 Share this article

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

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

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

"This represents the manner we plan racing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we want to remain equitable, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He won the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he lost the title as engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team made errors in their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as opportunities to increase the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can remember at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

Every team this season have had to confront the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready 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 long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They continued to improve it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We just have to continue optimising the performance and continue delivering good 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 execute a flawless performance."

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our control. It's not in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing much better.

Sainz and Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is currently much closer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths 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 favourite circuits, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next year 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 Lewis Hamilton has described many times this year. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

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

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, 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 pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time a certain indication of comparative speed emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate picture will emerge.