Can McLaren Keep Playing Fair and Halt Max Verstappen? - Formula 1 Questions and Answers

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

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they encounter with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to change their method to managing the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the manner we intend racing. This is the method in which we approach racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the championship, while McLaren imploded.

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

Andrea Stella commented after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach 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 mathematics."

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

Every team this year have had to face the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 season 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 usually 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 benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

They continued to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Texas had he not ended up 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 race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a perfect race."

"So definitely we have a large chance, and the result of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct premise. 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 now performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon do now appear very even. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on average Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The first test, 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 scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time some kind of sense of relative performance emerges.

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