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Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to modify their strategy to running the team.

They will continue to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of equity and balance.

"This represents the approach we intend competing. This is the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we intend to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He claimed the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella said following the race in Austin: "We view the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach 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 closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to face the conundrum of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a team 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 - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations 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 period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their new underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We just have to continue optimising the car performance and continue executing good race 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 execute a perfect race."

"So definitely we have a significant opportunity, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on balance Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect most in Formula 1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the two tests in Sakhir on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of indication of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise picture will emerge.