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

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they encounter with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to change their method to running the team.

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

"This is the approach we plan competing. This remains the way in which we tackle racing, and we aim to stay equitable, and we want to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

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

And he lost the title as engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Andrea Stella stated following the race in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 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 closed by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on This Year's Car?

Every team this year have had to confront the dilemma of how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

The McLaren team began this season with the best car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

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

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Texas had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the performance and continue delivering strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

"So definitely we have a significant opportunity, and the result of this championship and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not placed in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely accurate basis. It's true that each of Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently performing much better.

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

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

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque made his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

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

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed 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 Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this year. But not all struggle in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the teams preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of indication of relative performance becomes apparent.

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