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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

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

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

"This is the way we plan competing. This is the way in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He won the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he lost the title as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella stated following the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

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

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

Every team this year have had to face the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 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 case that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. 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 began this year with the best car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They did continue 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 straightforward choice to switch focus to next year.

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

"We just have to keep maximising the car performance and keep executing good race 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 race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely correct premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear very even. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

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

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not all struggle in this manner.

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

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

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

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 new engines without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise situation will emerge.