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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to change their approach to managing the team.

They will continue to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the way we plan racing. This remains the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Andrea Stella stated following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as chances to increase the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can remember at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Stop Development on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to face the conundrum of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

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

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he believed Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the performance and continue executing good weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an entirely accurate basis. It's true that each of Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

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

Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is currently significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next year will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed 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 all faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

So the two tests in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise picture will emerge.