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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the challenge they encounter with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they don't believe to change their approach to managing the team.

They will continue to provide both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of equity and balance.

"This is the manner we intend racing. This remains the method in which we tackle racing, and we want to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to secure the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he missed out on the championship as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella said following the race in Texas: "We view the next five races as opportunities to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

Every team this season have had to face the conundrum of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the significant regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

McLaren began this season with the best car, after investing a lot of technical development into their 2025 season design.

They continued to improve it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at 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 next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Austin had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the car performance and continue executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

"So definitely we have a large chance, and the outcome of this season and the driver's title is in our control. It's not in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's correct that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now faring much better.

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

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on average Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari driver this season.

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

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next year will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not all struggle in this way.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Before the cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will know how the teams are performing 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 Bahrain on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time a certain indication of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's not until the first race that the complete and precise picture will emerge.