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

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

They will persist to give their two drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we plan competing. This is the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain equitable, and we want to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He claimed the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Stella commented after the race in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to face the conundrum of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations changed.

The McLaren team started this year with the best car, after putting a lot of technical development into their 2025 design.

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Austin had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the car performance and continue delivering good weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

"Therefore we have a significant opportunity, and the result of this championship and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate basis. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is currently much closer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to argue that on balance Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the F1 cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain sense of comparative speed emerges.

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