🔗 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 fully conscious of the challenge they encounter with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to change their method to managing the team.

They will persist to give their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we intend racing. This is the way in which we approach competition, and we aim to stay equitable, and we want to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He won the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari messed up their strategy at the final race of the season and allowed Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella commented following the race in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that claims the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

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

Every team this season have had to face the conundrum 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 rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the car performance and continue delivering strong race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't execute a flawless race."

"So definitely we have a significant opportunity, and the outcome of this championship and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon do now appear very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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 was. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I believe most in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Until the F1 cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will understand how the constructors are performing next year.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the teams wanted to understand their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate situation will become clear.