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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 well aware of the difficulty they encounter with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to change their strategy to managing the team.

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

"This represents the manner we intend competing. This is the way in which we tackle racing, and we aim to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He claimed the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as opportunities to extend the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by mathematics."

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

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the case 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 - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he thought Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the car performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the result of this championship and the driver's title 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 inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying or race.

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this season.

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

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I believe the majority in F1 would expect not.

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

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will understand how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted 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 first time some kind of indication of relative performance becomes apparent.

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