Will McLaren Continue Playing Fair and Stop Verstappen? - F1 Questions and Answers

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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to change their approach to managing the team.

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

"This is the approach we intend competing. This remains the way in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay equitable, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella stated 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 call as to a team driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We lean 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 [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

Every team 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 rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, 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 catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

McLaren started this year with the best car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

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

"We just have to continue maximising the car performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a flawless race."

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the result of this season and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely accurate basis. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are now performing much better.

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

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 previously. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's hard to argue that on average Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Both Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - 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 lot for a driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this year. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe the majority in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Before the cars run for the first time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the teams preferred to understand their first running of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

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

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise situation will emerge.