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

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

They will continue to provide both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This is the manner we intend racing. This is the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we want to remain equitable, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

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

And he lost the championship as race engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team messed up their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Stella said following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the gap on Verstappen. 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 past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 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 make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Stop Upgrades on This Year's Car?

All teams this season 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 rules overhaul scheduled for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward decision to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their new underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Austin had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue optimising the car performance and continue executing strong 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."

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the outcome of this season and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not placed in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely 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 performing much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

He is currently 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 last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described many times this year. But not every driver struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the constructors are performing 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 initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

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

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate situation will emerge.