Can the McLaren team Keep Maintaining Fair Play and Halt Max Verstappen? - F1 Questions and Answers

Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

McLaren are well aware of the challenge they confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to alter their approach to running the team.

They will persist to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the manner we plan competing. This remains the method in which we tackle competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He claimed the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he missed out on the championship as race engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari made errors in their strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella said following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to extend the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that claims the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on The Current Car?

Every team this season have had to face 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 coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

The McLaren team began this season with the best car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their new 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 victory in Austin had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

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

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an entirely correct premise. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now faring much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque made his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to argue that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and 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 completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting 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 switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Until the cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will understand how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams preferred to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's only at the season opener that the true and accurate situation will emerge.