Can McLaren Keep Maintaining Fair Play and Stop Max Verstappen? - Formula 1 Q&A

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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the obstacle they encounter with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to alter their method to running the team.

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

"This represents the manner we intend racing. This remains the way in which we approach racing, and we aim to remain fair, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he lost the title as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella said following the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by the numbers."

"We rely on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

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

All teams this season have had to confront the dilemma of 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 coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the performance and keep executing strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a perfect race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an entirely accurate basis. It's true that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

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

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

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on average Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari driver this year.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was on it 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 the majority in F1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Team Performance?

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

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time a certain indication of comparative speed emerges.

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