McLaren to continue fairness approach in F1 despite nervy end to last season
The McLaren team is to continue its policy of pursuing a rigorous fairness towards Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for the 2026 Formula One season,That is despite their doing so last season allowed a late challenge from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen which might have prevented the team securing the drivers’ title, which was ultimately won by Norris,Last year McLaren enjoyed the most competitive car for most of the season and from the off, the team insisted their drivers would be free to race one another and the team would apply what they referred to as their “papaya rules” to ensure they were scrupulously fair to both in racing situations,It was an admirable approach but one that attracted criticism, not least as the team found themselves with increasingly complex precedents set when they did, at times, intervene,At the same time, with the drivers taking points off one another across the year, it let Verstappen back into the title fight, which he lost by just two points at the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Building up to the start of the new season – with a technical preview of their new car, the MCL40, at the McLaren technology centre in Woking – the team principal, Andrea Stella, confirmed they would be allowing their drivers the same freedom to go up against one another this year and maintaining their racing rules to ensure parity between them,“The concepts of fairness, integrity, equal opportunities, sportsmanship, they are all fundamental for the team, for Lando and for Oscar,” Stella said,“So they are reaffirmed, they are confirmed and consolidated, if anything,”Norris and Piastri indulged in a close fight across the season, with McLaren choosing not to favour one driver at an early stage – a decision which, had they taken it, would almost certainly have ensured they closed out the drivers’ title comfortably and at a far earlier point,However, Stella insisted he felt the team had done the right thing and would do so again.
“Once we reviewed what we have done, in most of the cases we said that’s exactly what we would still do again,” he said.“But we found a few opportunities in which we can streamline the way in which we operate collectively.Like I said, reaffirming the fundamental principles that we have adopted in the past.”McLaren will unveil the MCL40 on 9 February in Bahrain but heading into the new season, even with a swathe of new regulations, Stella felt confident they were in a good position to defend their constructors’ and drivers’ titles and the team were as strong as he had ever seen since he became team principal in 2023.“The team enters 2026 in terms of competencies, capabilities, organisation, culture if anything, in the strongest position that I have witnessed since I’m team principal,” he said.
“We remain very confident that the wealth of capabilities, competencies, and the way we use them, thanks to our organisation and culture, will be a success factor in the long term.”
MPs criticise behaviour of senior DWP officials over carer’s allowance scandal
MP’s have criticised the “absolutely unacceptable behaviour” of senior welfare officials over the carer’s allowance scandal in which hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers were unfairly landed with huge debts.Sir Peter Schofield, the permanent secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions, came under fire on Wednesday from a select committee, which accused him of giving out “a lot of blancmange” over the DWP’s response to the scandal.An independent review into the overpayments scandal published in November found that longstanding and “unacceptable” systemic DWP leadership failures, poor benefit design and unlawful internal staff guidance were at the root of the problems.As well as inadvertently running up debts of thousands of pounds, carers who received overpayments often felt so desperate they contemplated suicide, the review found. It described the system as like being “at the whim of a faceless machine”
Alan Woodhouse obituary
My friend Alan Woodhouse, who has died aged 92, was the longest serving Samaritans volunteer in the history of the organisation, which offers support to anyone struggling to cope or at risk of taking their own lives.Alan joined the Liverpool and Merseyside branch when it was founded in 1960, and was still answering telephones there 60 years later. He was appointed MBE for his service in 2017 and retired in 2020.Samaritans was founded in 1953 in London by the Rev Chad Varah. Its second branch was set up in the crypt of St Nicholas Church, Liverpool Pier Head, and when it opened on 1 March 1960 Alan staffed the first overnight shift
The return of measles: how a once-vanquished disease is spreading again
The measles outbreak in South Carolina now stands at 664 cases, more than doubling in a few weeks, officials said this week. The highly contagious virus has also spread onward to North Carolina, Ohio and Washington state, and similar outbreaks are unfurling in Arizona and Utah as well.The outbreak, which first began in Texas a year ago this week, has spread to most US states – and as the US passes the one-year mark, its measles-elimination status will probably end, a symbol indicating an expected wave of year-round preventable disease. The outbreak has been plagued by misinformation, with Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services and longtime vaccine critic, framing measles vaccination as a personal choice and promoting unproven treatments.The vast majority of those infected are children, and most of them did not receive the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR vaccine)
UK glaucoma cases will rise to 1.6m by 2060 amid ‘demographic timebomb’, experts say
New estimates predict at least 1.6 million people in the UK will be living with glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, by 2060.The figure is much higher than the current 1.1 million people estimated to have the condition, research published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology suggests.The sharp rise will be driven by an increasingly ageing population and growth in the proportion of higher-risk ethnically diverse groups, prompting a need for an expansion in eye health services to meet demand
Michael Baron obituary
The London solicitor Michael Baron, who has died aged 96, was instrumental in changing the lives of autistic people for the better. At a time when autism was little known or understood, in 1962 he co-founded the UK’s leading autistic charity. As its first chair, he was the driving force in publicising the condition and raising funds.He helped set up the world’s first autism-specific school in 1965 and the first residential community for autistic adults in 1974. As one of a group of lawyers, he campaigned for the Education (Handicapped Children) Act in 1970, which gave all children, regardless of disability, the right to an education
Educational background key indicator of immigration views in UK, study finds
Rightwing movements are struggling to gain support among graduates as education emerges as the most important dividing line in British attitudes towards politics, diversity and immigration, research has found.A study from the independent National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) found people with qualifications below A-level were more than twice as likely to support rightwing parties compared with those with qualifications above.The Demographic Divides report says: “A person with no educational qualifications had around 2 times the odds of voting for either the Conservatives or Reform UK than someone with a university degree or higher. This is independent of other factors, including financial precarity, so those without a degree are more likely to support rightwing parties in the UK even after adjusting for their financial situation.“If one wanted to predict whether a person voted for parties of the right in the UK, knowing their educational background would give them a very good chance of making a correct prediction
Offshore gambling operators using Australian Open to promote illegal services
Hans Herrmann obituary
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