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

The McLaren team are well aware of the challenge they confront with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to modify their strategy to running the team.

They will continue to give their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and balance.

"This represents the approach we plan racing. This is the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we want to remain fair, and we want to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to win the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Andrea Stella stated following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that wins the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

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

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their new underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the performance and continue delivering strong race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

He is now much closer than he previously. He is consistently 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 last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this year. But not every driver struggle in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the constructors are looking next year.

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

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

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the complete and precise situation will become clear.