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

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

They will continue to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

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

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He won the title as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to win the championship, while McLaren imploded.

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

Andrea Stella said following the race in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

"We rely on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the title. 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 year have had to confront the dilemma of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

They continued to improve it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car compared to 2026, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the car performance and continue executing good race 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 flawless performance."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely accurate basis. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari driver this year.

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

Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next year will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

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

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

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will understand how the teams are looking next year.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the teams preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests 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 only at the season opener that the complete and precise picture will become clear.