🔗 Share this article

Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to change their approach to running the team.

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

"This represents the way we intend racing. This remains the method in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay equitable, and we intend to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two races to secure the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

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

"We lean on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to confront the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the major rules overhaul scheduled for the 2026 season.

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

McLaren 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 while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Stella stated he thought Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Austin had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the performance and keep delivering good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise 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 driver's title is in our control. It's not in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely accurate premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying or race.

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 four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult 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 Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time a certain sense of comparative speed becomes apparent.

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