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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 face with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to alter their approach to managing the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of equity and balance.

"This is the manner we plan racing. This remains the method in which we approach racing, and we want to remain equitable, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen 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 Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the title from under their noses.

Stella stated after the race in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the car performance and keep delivering strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

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

He is now much closer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer 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.

Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will know how the constructors are performing next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the two tests in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of indication of comparative speed emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the season opener that the complete and precise situation will emerge.