🔗 Share this article

Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

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

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

"This is the manner we intend competing. This is the method in which we approach competition, and we aim to stay equitable, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He won the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the title as engineer to Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella stated following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the lead on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that wins the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on This Year's Car?

All teams this year have had to confront the conundrum of how long to focus on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the significant regulation change scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to 2026, it became an easy decision to redirect attention to the following season.

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

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and keep executing strong race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the outcome 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?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely accurate 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 faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon do now look very even. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

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

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

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this year.

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 the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked 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 described repeatedly this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect most in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Before the cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next year, no-one will know how the teams are looking next year.

The first test, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams 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 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of sense of comparative speed becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the complete and precise picture will become clear.