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

The McLaren team are well aware of the obstacle they encounter with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to change their method to running the team.

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

"This represents the approach we intend racing. This is the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we want to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to win the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella stated after the race in Austin: "We look at the next five races as chances to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

Every team this season have had to confront the conundrum of for how long to focus on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the major regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

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

The McLaren team began this season with the fastest car, after putting a lot of technical development into their 2025 season design.

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he thought Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the performance and continue executing strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's true that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing much better.

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

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

He is currently much closer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting 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 change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

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

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, no-one will know how the constructors are looking next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors 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 Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time a certain sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate picture will become clear.