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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the challenge they confront with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to alter their strategy to running the team.

They will continue to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the manner we plan competing. This is the method in which we approach racing, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to secure the title, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Stella commented after the race in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to face the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the major regulation change scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They continued to improve it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella stated he thought Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this season 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?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is currently much closer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this year.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; 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 repeatedly this season. But not all struggle in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know Next Year's Competitive Order?

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the constructors preferred to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate picture will emerge.