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Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they don't believe to modify their method to running the team.

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

"This is the manner we plan competing. This is the way in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He claimed the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season 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 engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari messed up their race strategy at the final race of the season and allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from their grasp.

Andrea Stella stated after the race in Texas: "We view the next five races as chances to extend the lead on Max. 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 past experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix 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."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

Every team this year have had to confront the dilemma of how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major rules overhaul scheduled for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's typically 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 get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their new underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the performance and continue delivering good weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely correct premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

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

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on average Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not claim even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described many times this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

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

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Before the cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next year, nobody will understand how the teams are performing next year.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February 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 true and accurate picture will become clear.