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

McLaren are well aware of the difficulty they encounter with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to change their approach to running the team.

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

"This is the approach we intend competing. This is the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we want to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He won the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two races to secure the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the title as engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from under their noses.

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

"We lean on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that claims the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

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

All teams this year have had to confront the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as prepared 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 gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their new underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Texas had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

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

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the result of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

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

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying or race.

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

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

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

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

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

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

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

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