Will the McLaren team Continue Maintaining Fair Play and Halt Verstappen? - F1 Questions and Answers

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

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they confront with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to modify their method to running the team.

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

"This represents the manner we intend racing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle competition, and we aim to remain equitable, and we want to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the final race of the season and allowed Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Stella stated after the race in Texas: "We view the next five races as chances to extend the lead on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the past 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 mathematics."

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

Every team this season have had to face the conundrum of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring 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 constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

McLaren began this year with the best car, after investing a lot of innovation 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 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he believed Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Austin had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the car performance and keep executing strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now faring much better.

Sainz and Albon currently appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

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

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

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, 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 moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I believe the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Before the F1 cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next season, no-one will know how the constructors are performing next year.

The first test, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the constructors preferred to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of comparative speed becomes apparent.

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