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

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

They will persist to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we intend competing. This is the method in which we approach competition, and we want to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

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

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

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

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

Every team this season have had to confront the conundrum of for how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the significant rules overhaul scheduled for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella stated he thought Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Austin had he not finished following Leclerc.

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

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely accurate basis. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing much better.

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

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

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

Both Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

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

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 every driver struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the F1 cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain indication of relative performance emerges.

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise situation will become clear.