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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

McLaren are fully conscious of the obstacle they encounter with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they don't believe to change their approach to running the team.

They will persist to give their two drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we plan racing. This remains the way in which we approach competition, and we want to stay fair, and we intend to apply equality to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He claimed the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he missed out on the championship as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team made errors in their strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from their grasp.

Andrea Stella commented after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you go to the last race and it's in fact the third-placed driver that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

Every team 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 regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. 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 rules were modified.

McLaren began this year with the best car, after putting a lot of technical development 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 achieving on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their updated floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Stella stated he believed Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the car performance and continue executing good weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a perfect race."

"Therefore 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 Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely accurate premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

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

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

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

Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next year will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the cars run for the first time in winter testing next season, nobody will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of sense of comparative speed emerges.

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