Will the McLaren team Continue Maintaining Fair Play and Stop Max Verstappen? - Formula 1 Questions and Answers

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

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

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

"This is the manner we intend competing. This is the method in which we approach racing, and we aim to remain equitable, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the previous points system in two races to secure the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the lead on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the third-placed driver that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to face the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the significant rules overhaul scheduled for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

McLaren started this year with the best car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he believed Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Austin had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the car performance and keep delivering good 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 deliver a perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely correct premise. It's correct that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are now performing much better.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon currently look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is now 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 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

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

Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not all struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe the majority in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will know how the constructors are looking next year.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time some kind of sense of comparative speed becomes apparent.

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