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

The McLaren team are well aware of the obstacle they encounter with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to change their strategy to managing the team.

They will persist to provide both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and balance.

"This is the way we intend competing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain equitable, and we intend to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella stated after the race in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you reach 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 determined by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

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

In F1, it's typically the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were achieving 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 bringing their updated floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Texas had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the car performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

"Therefore we have a significant opportunity, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our control. It's not in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an entirely correct premise. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing much better.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon currently look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is consistently qualifying 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 last weekend in Austin, 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 race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on average Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari driver this season.

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

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I believe the majority in Formula 1 would expect not.

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

Until the cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will understand how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

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

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate picture will become clear.