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Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

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

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

"This represents the approach we plan racing. This is the way in which we approach racing, and we aim to stay fair, and we want to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of numerous championship fights. He claimed the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two races to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Stella commented following the race in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

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

Why Did McLaren Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

Every team this year have had to face the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

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

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Stella stated he believed Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Austin had he not finished behind Leclerc.

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

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the outcome of this championship and the driver's title is in our control. It's not in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely accurate basis. It's true that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring much better.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon currently look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

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

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque made his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to argue that on balance Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari driver this year.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now 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 ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

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

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Before the cars run for the initial time in winter testing next year, no-one will understand how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

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

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate picture will emerge.