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Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

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

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

"This is the approach we plan racing. This remains the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we aim to stay fair, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella said following the race in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall 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 claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to face the conundrum of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the major regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They continued to improve it for a period, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their new underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not ended up following Leclerc.

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

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this season and the driver's title is in our control. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon currently appear quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

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

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the regulation changes 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 repeatedly this season. But not all struggle in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Before the cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will know how the teams are looking next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the teams preferred to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

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

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