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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the obstacle they face with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to change their method to running the team.

They will persist to provide both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This is the way we plan racing. This remains the way in which we tackle competition, and we want to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He claimed the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella said following the race in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

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

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

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

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella said he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Texas had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the car performance and continue executing strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this championship and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct basis. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

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

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

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

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not every driver struggle in this manner.

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

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Before the cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will know how the teams are performing next year.

The first test, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted 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 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of indication of comparative speed becomes apparent.

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