Can the McLaren team Keep Playing Fair and Stop Verstappen? - F1 Questions and Answers

Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they confront with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to alter their method to managing the team.

They will continue to give both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the manner we intend racing. This is the way in which we approach competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we want to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and enabled Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as chances to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's in fact the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams 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 major regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a team 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 last time the regulations changed.

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to next year.

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

"We just have to keep optimising the performance and continue executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the result of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely accurate basis. It's correct that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are now performing much better.

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

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

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

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know Next Year's Competitive Order?

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

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams 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 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain indication of relative performance emerges.

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise picture will emerge.