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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

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

They will continue to provide both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the way we intend racing. This remains the method in which we tackle competition, and we want to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He claimed the title as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Stella commented after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

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

All teams this season have had to confront the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the major rules overhaul scheduled 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 considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

McLaren started this season with the fastest car, after investing a lot of technical development into their 2025 season design.

They continued to improve it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Austin had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

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

"So definitely we have a large chance, 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 Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

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

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

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described many times this year. But not all struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the start 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?

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

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams preferred to understand their first running of the new engines without the scrutiny of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of comparative speed emerges.

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