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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they encounter with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to modify their approach to running the team.

They will continue to give both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This is the way we plan competing. This is the method in which we approach competition, and we want to stay fair, and we want to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the title as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he missed out on the title as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the championship and allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella said after the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the lead on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only 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 [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on The Current Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their new floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the performance and keep executing good weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

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

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

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

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction 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 Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

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

There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Before the cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will understand 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 initial track time of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

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

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate situation will become clear.