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

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

"This is the way we intend competing. This remains the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to remain equitable, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to secure the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Andrea Stella said after the race in Austin: "We view 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 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

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

All teams this season have had to confront the conundrum of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their new underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Texas had he not finished following Leclerc.

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

"Therefore we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this championship and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not placed in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

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

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

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

He is now much closer than he previously. He is regularly 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 last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

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

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will understand how the constructors are performing next year.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their first running of the new engines 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 initial occasion some kind of indication of comparative speed becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate picture will emerge.