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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 challenge they confront with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this year, but they don't believe to alter their method to managing the team.

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

"This represents the approach we plan competing. This remains the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we aim to remain equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as chances to increase the lead on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by the numbers."

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

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

Every team this season have had to confront the dilemma of for 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 coming for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

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

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their new floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Austin had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the performance and keep executing strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless race."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

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

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

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

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

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

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

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

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

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

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?

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

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain sense of comparative speed emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the season opener that the true and accurate picture will emerge.