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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 fully conscious of the difficulty they face 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 provide both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a basis of equity and balance.

"This represents the manner we plan racing. This is the method in which we tackle racing, and we aim to remain fair, and we want to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella stated after the race in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to extend the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you reach 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 the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Stop Upgrades 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 making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for 2026.

In F1, it's typically the case 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 succeed, that advantage can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the performance and keep delivering strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

"Therefore we have a large chance, and the outcome of this season and the driver's title is in our control. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely correct premise. It's true that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or race.

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

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on balance Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

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

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 venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are performing next year.

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

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain indication of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's not until the first race that the true and accurate situation will become clear.