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

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they confront with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to change their approach to managing the team.

They will continue to provide their two drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of equity and equanimity.

"This is the way we intend competing. This remains the way in which we approach racing, and we aim to stay equitable, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he missed out on the championship as engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari messed up their race strategy at the final race of the championship and allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella stated following the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that claims the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

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

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

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 advantage can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

McLaren started this season with the best car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the performance and continue delivering strong race 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 race."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely accurate premise. It's true that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

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 summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

Each of 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 say even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not all struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

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

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 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 season opener that the complete and precise situation will become clear.