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

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

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

They will continue to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the way we plan competing. This is the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain equitable, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the title 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 title, while McLaren collapsed.

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 season and allowed Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the championship from under their noses.

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the next five races as opportunities to extend the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be led by the numbers."

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

Why Did McLaren Stop Upgrades on This Year's Car?

All teams this season have had to face the conundrum 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 2026.

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue optimising the performance and continue executing good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct basis. It's true that each of Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now 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 frequently at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Each of Lewis 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 claim even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Until the cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will know how the teams are looking next year.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the teams preferred to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain indication of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate situation will become clear.