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Do 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 confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to alter their approach to managing the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we intend competing. This is the way in which we approach racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while McLaren imploded.

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

Andrea Stella commented after the race in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

"We lean on the past experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that claims the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

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

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation 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 benefit can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

McLaren began this season with the fastest car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Austin had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We just have to continue optimising the performance and keep delivering strong race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

"Therefore we have a significant opportunity, and the result 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 Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely correct basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

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

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Charles 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 his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

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

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

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the cars run for the first time in winter testing next year, no-one will understand how the teams are looking next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise situation will emerge.