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

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they face with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to modify their strategy to managing the team.

They will continue to give both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of equity and equanimity.

"This is the way we intend racing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle competition, and we want to remain equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He claimed the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he lost the championship as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the championship from their grasp.

Andrea Stella said after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as chances to extend the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to face the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring 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 situation that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Stella said he believed Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Texas had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the car performance and keep executing strong race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an entirely correct basis. It's true that each of Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

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

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

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

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in F1 would expect not.

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

Until the cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will understand how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams preferred to understand 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 initial occasion some kind of indication of comparative speed emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise picture will emerge.