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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

The McLaren team are well aware of the obstacle they face with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to change their method to managing the team.

They will continue to give both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we plan competing. This is the method in which we approach competition, and we want to remain fair, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella commented after the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the last race and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on The Current Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

The McLaren team started this season 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 looking at the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Stella said he thought Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a flawless race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an completely accurate basis. It's true that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing much better.

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

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying or race.

He is currently much closer than he previously. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

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

Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

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

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

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

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to understand their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time some kind of sense of comparative speed emerges.

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