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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

McLaren are well aware of the challenge they encounter with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to alter their approach to managing the team.

They will persist to provide both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This is the approach we plan competing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he missed out on the championship as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the season and allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the title from under their noses.

Stella commented 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 call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We rely 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 in fact the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on This Year's Car?

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

In F1, it's usually the case that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.

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

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and keep executing strong race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely accurate basis. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Albon do now appear very even. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about 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 completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting 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 racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect most in Formula 1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars run for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will understand how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors preferred to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

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