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

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

They will persist to provide their two drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and balance.

"This represents the way we plan racing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He claimed the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Andrea Stella commented following the race in Austin: "We look at the next five races as chances to extend the lead on Max. And when it comes to 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 remember at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on The Current Car?

Every team this year have had to face the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the car performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a perfect race."

"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 another team's control."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

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

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

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

He is now much closer than he previously. He is regularly setting times within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

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

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this season.

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

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

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would expect not.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next season, no-one will know how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their first running 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 first time some kind of sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

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