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

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

They will persist to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a basis of equity and equanimity.

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

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

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

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the last race 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 mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on This Year's Car?

Every team this year have had to face the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major rules overhaul scheduled for 2026.

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

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

They continued to develop it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not finished following Leclerc.

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

"Therefore we have a significant opportunity, and the result of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our control. 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 basis. It's true that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon do now look very even. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is now much closer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction 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 Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on balance Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this season.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - 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 lot for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe the majority in Formula 1 would expect not.

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

Before the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next year, no-one will know how the teams are looking next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of indication of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise situation will emerge.