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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they confront with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to modify their strategy to running the team.

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

"This is the way we intend competing. This is the way in which we approach racing, and we aim to stay equitable, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Stella said following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the lead on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that claims the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

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

All teams 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 rules overhaul scheduled for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, 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 were modified.

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

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their new underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella stated he believed Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

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

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely accurate premise. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing much better.

Carlos 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 Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

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

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next year, no-one will understand how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is private because the teams preferred to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of indication of comparative speed emerges.

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