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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the challenge they face with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this year, but they don't believe to alter their strategy to managing the team.

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

"This represents the approach we plan racing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of numerous championship fights. He won the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the previous points system in two races to secure the title, while McLaren imploded.

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

Andrea Stella stated following the Grand Prix 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 decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, the 2010 season, 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 determined by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Stop Development on This Year's Car?

Every team this year have had to confront the conundrum of how long to concentrate 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 F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning 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 - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their new underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Texas had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the car performance and continue delivering good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, 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 season and the drivers' championship is in our control. 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 question has an completely correct basis. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

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

He is currently much closer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

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 claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not all struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the teams preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

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

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