Can McLaren Continue Playing Fair and Stop Verstappen? - F1 Q&A

Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

McLaren are well aware of the obstacle they confront with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to modify their approach to running the team.

They will continue to give their two drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This is the approach we intend racing. This is the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we want to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He claimed the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Andrea Stella said following the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by the calculations."

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

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time 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 began this year 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 finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the car performance and continue executing strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the outcome of this championship 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 question has an entirely accurate basis. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon currently look very even. 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 Charles Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is currently much closer than he previously. He is regularly setting times 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 previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque 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 now, it's difficult to argue that on balance Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - 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 get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the F1 cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain indication of relative performance becomes apparent.

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