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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 challenge they face with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to alter their approach to managing the team.

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

"This represents the way we plan competing. This is the way in which we approach racing, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to apply equality to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two races to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he missed out on the title as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team made errors in their strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella stated following the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the third-placed driver that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

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

Every team this season have had to face the dilemma of how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the significant rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at 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 improve it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their updated floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue maximising the performance and continue delivering strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the result of this season and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate basis. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing much better.

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

Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying or race.

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. 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 The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Until the F1 cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the teams wanted to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of sense of comparative speed emerges.

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