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

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to change their method to managing 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 represents the approach we plan competing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we aim to remain equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the title as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to win the championship, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella said following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the lead on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that wins the championship. 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 year have had to confront the dilemma of how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant rules overhaul scheduled for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a long time 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 regulations changed.

McLaren started this year with the best car, after putting a lot of technical development into their 2025 design.

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the performance and keep executing strong race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the outcome 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 Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently performing much better.

Sainz and Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

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 it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted 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 driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not all struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 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 Team Performance?

Before the cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will understand how the constructors are performing next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February 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 emerge.