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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 obstacle they face with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to change their approach to managing the team.

They will continue to provide both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This is the way we intend racing. This remains the way in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain equitable, and we intend to apply equality to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while McLaren collapsed.

And he lost the title as engineer to Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from their grasp.

Andrea Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as chances to extend the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

"We rely on the past experience. I can remember at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Stop Development on The Current Car?

Every team this season have had to confront the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant rules overhaul coming for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, 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 redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Austin had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the car performance and continue executing strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

"So definitely we have a large chance, and the outcome of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently performing much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

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

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

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

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know Next Year's Competitive Order?

Before the cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, nobody 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 teams preferred to understand their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain 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 season opener that the true and accurate situation will become clear.