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Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they confront with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to modify their strategy to running the team.

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

"This represents the manner we plan racing. This is the way in which we tackle racing, and we want to remain fair, and we want to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he lost the title as engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari messed up their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and allowed Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the championship from their grasp.

Andrea Stella said following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that claims 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?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

The McLaren team started this year with the fastest car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he thought Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We must continue maximising the performance and continue executing strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this season and the driver's title is in our control. It's not placed in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

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

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

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on balance Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis 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 particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

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

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain indication of relative performance becomes apparent.

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