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

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they don't believe to change their method to running the team.

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

"This is the way we plan racing. This is the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to stay equitable, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

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

And he lost the title as race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their strategy at the final race of the championship and allowed Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Stella stated after the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

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

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

Every team this year have had to confront 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 regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time 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 did continue to improve it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We just have to continue optimising the performance and continue executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

"So definitely we have a significant opportunity, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an entirely accurate premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently faring much better.

Carlos Sainz and Albon currently look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

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

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?

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

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

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