The Woking-based team’s drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, currently sit first and second in the championship, with just a single point separating them and five races left to run. Despite this close battle within the team, McLaren faces a bigger challenge from Verstappen. The Red Bull driver has been steadily closing the gap since the Dutch Grand Prix in August, and is now only 36 points behind the championship lead, down from over 100 points earlier in the season.

“If Max is the champion at the end of the year for us, the important thing is that we can say we have done our best, and we have done our best according to the way we go racing,” team boss Andrea Stella told the Beyond the Grid podcast.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown echoed this sentiment, insisting that the team will remain fair to both drivers, no matter the situation. “I’d shake his hand and say ‘job well done’ if Max wins this year,” he said. Brown stressed that the team wants to avoid the mistakes of 2007, when a rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at McLaren allowed Kimi Raikkonen to claim the title.

“I want to make sure if we don’t win, he beats us, we don’t beat ourselves. That’s important,” he said. “We’re playing offence, we’re not playing defence. I’d rather have the outcome where we did the best we can, and our drivers tied in points, and the other guy beat us by one, than play favourites.”

This season, McLaren has mostly allowed its drivers to race freely. However, there have been a few moments of tension. In Monza, Piastri was told to give position back to Norris after a slow pit stop, and in Singapore, a close overtake by Norris led to minor contact, which resulted in internal team measures to restore fairness. Both drivers have confirmed that they understand and respect team rules.

Stella compared the relationship between Norris and Piastri to that of two sons. “When you have two sons, and somebody says, ‘which one is your preferred son?’ Yeah, but they are my two sons! How can you say which one is the preferred one?” he said. “I feel very grateful to both, in fairness.”

With both drivers on long-term contracts, McLaren sees one of the most stable line-ups in Formula 1. The team believes that keeping both drivers in genuine contention gives the best chance to win both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships, even if Verstappen continues to mount a strong challenge.