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

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

They will persist to give both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and balance.

"This is the way we plan racing. This is the way in which we tackle racing, and we aim to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Andrea Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the next five races as chances to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's in fact the third-placed driver that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

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

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the performance and continue delivering good race 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 execute a perfect performance."

"So definitely we have a significant opportunity, and the outcome of this championship and the driver's title is in our control. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an completely correct basis. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now faring much better.

Sainz and Albon do now look very even. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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 previously. 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 mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to argue that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this year.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the F1 cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will know how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

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

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

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise situation will become clear.