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

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they encounter with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to modify their strategy to running the team.

They will continue to give their two drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the manner we plan racing. This is the method in which we approach competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we intend to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

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

Andrea Stella stated following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as chances to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We lean on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

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

All teams this season 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 significant rules overhaul coming for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

The McLaren team began this year with the best car, after investing a lot of technical development into their 2025 season design.

They continued to develop it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue maximising the performance and keep executing good weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the outcome of this season and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an entirely accurate premise. It's true that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's hard to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this season.

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not all struggle in this way.

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

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Until the cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the teams 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 first running of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

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

But, as always, it's only at the season opener that the complete and precise picture will become clear.