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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

McLaren are well aware of the challenge they face with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this year, but they see no reason to modify their approach to running the team.

They will persist to provide both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we intend competing. This remains the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to remain equitable, and we intend to apply equality to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two races to secure the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Andrea Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the past experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by mathematics."

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

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he believed Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Austin had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We just have to continue optimising the car 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 flawless race."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the outcome of this season and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Albon currently appear very even. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

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

He is currently much closer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

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

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

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

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

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Before the F1 cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the constructors are looking next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is private because the teams wanted to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes 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 indication of relative performance becomes apparent.

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