🔗 Share this article

Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

McLaren are well aware 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 strategy to running the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the way we plan competing. This is the method in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to apply equality to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of numerous championship fights. He claimed the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to secure the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella commented after the race in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be led by the numbers."

"We rely on the past experience. I can remember 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 close the door unless this is closed by mathematics."

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

All teams this season have had to face the conundrum of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella said he believed Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and keep delivering strong race 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 perfect race."

"Therefore we have a significant opportunity, 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 entirely accurate premise. It's true that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently performing much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

He is now much closer than he previously. He is consistently setting times 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 last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque made his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not all struggle in this manner.

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

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

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

The first test, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's only at the season opener that the true and accurate picture will emerge.