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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they encounter with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to change their approach to running the team.

They will continue to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we intend racing. This is the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He claimed the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the title from their grasp.

Andrea Stella said after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the lead on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least 2007, 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 make decisions unless this is determined by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Stop Development on The Current Car?

Every team this year have had to face the conundrum 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 typically the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue maximising the performance and keep delivering good weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

"Therefore we have a significant chance, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our control. It's not in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon currently look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

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

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

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this year.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed 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 completely adjusted 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 change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this year. But not all struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Before the F1 cars run for the first time in winter testing next season, no-one will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams preferred to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

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