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

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

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

"This is the manner we intend competing. This is the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we want to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He claimed the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he missed out on the title as race engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team messed up their strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the title from their grasp.

Andrea Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on This Year's Car?

All teams this season have had to face the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the significant rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their updated floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the performance and continue delivering strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the result of this season 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 Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an entirely correct premise. It's correct that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently 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 currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

He is currently significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the F1 cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will understand how the constructors are looking next year.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors preferred to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes 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 indication of relative performance emerges.

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