Can the McLaren team Continue Playing Fair and Stop Verstappen? - F1 Q&A

Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

McLaren are well aware of the challenge they encounter with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to modify 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 balance.

"This is the approach we intend competing. This is the way in which we tackle racing, and we want to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella stated after the race in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you reach 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 Cease Development on This Year's Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward decision to redirect attention to next year.

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

"We just have to continue maximising the car performance and continue delivering good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the result of this season and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon currently look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

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

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

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described many times this year. But not all struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is private because the teams wanted to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the press.

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

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