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

McLaren are fully conscious of the challenge they face with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to modify their method to running the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the way we intend competing. This is the way in which we tackle racing, and we want to remain equitable, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he missed out on the title as race engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari made errors in their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the championship from their grasp.

Andrea Stella said after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as chances 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 lean on the past experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

McLaren began this season with the best car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They continued to improve it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not finished behind Leclerc.

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

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct premise. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's hard to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari driver this year.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

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

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next season, no-one will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to understand their first running of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of indication of comparative speed emerges.

But, as ever, it's not until the first race that the true and accurate situation will emerge.