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

The McLaren team are well aware of the challenge they face with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to alter their method to running the team.

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

"This represents the manner we intend racing. This remains the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we aim to remain equitable, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He claimed the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Stella commented after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

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

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

All teams this season have had to confront the conundrum of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant rules overhaul scheduled for the 2026 season.

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

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the performance and keep executing good weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct premise. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

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

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

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

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's hard to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are performing next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the constructors preferred to understand their first running of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

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

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