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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they encounter with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to modify their strategy to managing the team.

They will persist to give their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the way we intend racing. This remains the method in which we approach racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He claimed the title as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the title, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella stated following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as opportunities to extend the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

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

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on This Year's Car?

Every team this season have had to confront the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the major rules overhaul scheduled for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations changed.

McLaren started this year with the best car, after putting a lot of technical development into their 2025 season design.

They continued to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the car performance and continue delivering strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a perfect race."

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the result of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's correct that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't 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.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described many times this season. But not every driver struggle in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Before the cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are looking next year.

The first test, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

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

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate situation will emerge.