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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

The McLaren team are well aware of the challenge they confront with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to alter their strategy to running the team.

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

"This is the way we intend competing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we want to remain equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He won the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two races to secure the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he lost the championship as engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team made errors in their strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella stated after the race in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

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

In F1, it's usually the case that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward decision to redirect attention to the following season.

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

"We just have to continue optimising the performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an completely correct premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing much better.

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

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

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly qualifying 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 last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about 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 regulation changes next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

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 way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?

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

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

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the season opener that the complete and precise picture will become clear.