🔗 Share this article

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

McLaren are fully conscious of the challenge they confront with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to alter their method to managing the team.

They will continue to give both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of equity and balance.

"This represents the manner we plan competing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay equitable, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of many title battles. 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 Grands Prix to secure the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the championship from their grasp.

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

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on This Year's Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Texas had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the performance and continue executing good weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

"Therefore we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this season and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon currently look very even. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on balance Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next season 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 switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are performing next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

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