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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they encounter with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team 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 operate the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the approach we intend competing. This is the method in which we tackle racing, and we want to remain equitable, and we intend to apply equality to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous championship fights. He won the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he lost the title as engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team made errors in their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and allowed Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the title from their grasp.

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as opportunities to increase the lead on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that wins the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on This Year's Car?

All teams this season have had to confront the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major regulation change coming for 2026.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

The McLaren team started this year with the fastest car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They continued to develop it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their updated floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the performance and keep delivering good weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely accurate basis. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon do now appear very even. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying or race.

He is now much closer than he previously. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque made his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to argue that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, 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 benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will understand how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

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

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the true and accurate situation will emerge.