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

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

They will continue to give their two drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

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

Team boss Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he lost the title as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the season and allowed Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella commented after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase 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 experience. I can recall at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on This Year's Car?

Every team this year have had to face the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the major regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

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

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their new floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he thought Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the performance and keep delivering good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying or race.

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari driver this year.

Both 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 fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

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

Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the F1 cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next season, nobody will know how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain indication of comparative speed becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate picture will emerge.