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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 obstacle they confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to change their strategy to running 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 way in which we tackle racing, and we aim to remain fair, and we want to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He claimed the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims 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 face the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

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

"Therefore we have a large chance, and the result of this season 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?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct premise. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

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

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on balance Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next year 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 change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would expect not.

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

Until the F1 cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will know how the teams are looking next year.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams preferred to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain indication of relative performance emerges.

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