Can the McLaren team Continue Playing Fair and Halt Max Verstappen? - F1 Questions and Answers

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

The McLaren team are well aware of the obstacle they face with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to change their strategy to running the team.

They will continue to provide both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the way we intend racing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we want to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

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

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

Andrea Stella said after the race in Austin: "We view the next five races as chances to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We lean on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, 2010, 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 make decisions unless this is determined by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on This Year's Car?

Every team this season have had to confront the conundrum of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not finished following Leclerc.

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

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our control. It's not in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

He is currently significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

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

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

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

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?

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

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain indication of comparative speed emerges.

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate picture will become clear.