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

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

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

"This represents the manner we plan competing. This is the method in which we approach competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we intend to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the previous points system in two races to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Stella commented after the race in Texas: "We look at the next five races as chances to increase the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix 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 mathematics."

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

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to switch focus 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 remains competitive - team boss Stella said he thought Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the car performance and continue delivering good weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the outcome of this season and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

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

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

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is currently significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to argue that on average Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

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

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle 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 F1 cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, no-one will know how the teams are performing next year.

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

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of indication of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the complete and precise situation will emerge.