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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to modify their method to managing the team.

They will continue to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we intend competing. This remains the method in which we approach racing, and we aim to stay fair, and we want to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to extend the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by the calculations."

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

All teams this year have had to face the conundrum of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, 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 season with the best car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They continued to develop it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the car performance and continue executing good weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely correct premise. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring much better.

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

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is currently much closer than he previously. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

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

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will suit him; 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 year. But not all struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe most in Formula 1 would expect not.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Before the cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, no-one will know how the constructors are looking next year.

The first test, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private 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 initial occasion some kind of sense of comparative speed becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's only at the season opener that the true and accurate situation will become clear.