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

The McLaren team are well aware of the obstacle they encounter with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to alter their method to managing the team.

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

"This represents the way we intend competing. This remains the method in which we tackle competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we intend to apply equality to our drivers."

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

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

Stella stated following the race in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's in fact the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to confront the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the major rules overhaul scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations changed.

The McLaren team started this year with the fastest car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They continued to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their new floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Austin had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the performance and keep executing good weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku, 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 hands. It's not placed in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently performing much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is now much closer than he previously. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

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

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe the majority in Formula 1 would expect not.

When Will We Know Next Year's Competitive Order?

Until the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to understand their initial track time 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 a certain indication of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate picture will become clear.