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Must 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 challenge they confront with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to change their strategy to managing the team.

They will persist to give their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and balance.

"This is the way we plan racing. This is the way in which we approach racing, and we want to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He claimed the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the title as engineer to Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the title from their grasp.

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by the numbers."

"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 third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

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

All teams this year have had to confront the dilemma of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the major regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Austin had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the car performance and continue executing strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

"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 another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

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

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

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

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

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this season.

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

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

There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this year. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?

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

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of indication of comparative speed becomes apparent.

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