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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the obstacle they confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they don't believe to modify their approach to running the team.

They will persist to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

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

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the title as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that claims the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to face the conundrum of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also making sure 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 regulation period, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, 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 best car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They continued 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 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their new underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Stella stated he believed Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Texas had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the performance and continue delivering strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless race."

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, 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 Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Albon do now look very even. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

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

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

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

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

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

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in F1 would expect not.

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

Before the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors preferred 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 Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain indication of comparative speed becomes apparent.

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