Will McLaren Keep Maintaining Fair Play and Halt Max Verstappen? - Formula 1 Questions and Answers

Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the challenge they face with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, 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 operate the team on a foundation of equity and balance.

"This is the approach we intend racing. This is the way in which we approach competition, and we want to remain equitable, and we intend to apply equality to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 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 engineer to Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the championship from their grasp.

Andrea Stella said following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's in fact 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?

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella said he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Texas had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the car performance and keep delivering strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

"So definitely we have a large chance, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not placed in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an entirely correct premise. It's true that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is now much closer 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 mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

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

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

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

So the two tests in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain sense of comparative speed emerges.

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