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

McLaren are well aware of the challenge they face with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to alter their method to managing the team.

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

"This represents the approach we plan competing. This is the method in which we tackle competition, and we aim to stay equitable, and we intend to apply equality to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can remember 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 closed by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on This Year's Car?

All teams this year have had to confront the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

McLaren began this year with the fastest car, after investing a lot of technical development into their 2025 season design.

They continued to develop it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the car performance and keep delivering good weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a flawless race."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely correct basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

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

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better 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.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not every driver struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?

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

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of indication of relative performance emerges.

But, as ever, it's only at the season opener that the complete and precise situation will emerge.