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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

McLaren are well aware of the difficulty they face with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to modify their approach to running the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This is the approach we intend competing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle competition, and we want to remain equitable, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He claimed the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella said after the race in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend 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 lean on the past experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Cease Upgrades on This Year's Car?

All teams this season have had to face the dilemma of for how long to focus 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 F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue optimising the car performance and continue delivering strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely correct premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now performing much better.

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

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, 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 second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on balance Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

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

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will suit him; 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 described many times this year. But not all struggle in this way.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the cars run for the first time in winter testing next season, no-one will know how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

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

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

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise picture will become clear.