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

McLaren are well aware of the difficulty they confront with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to modify their approach to managing the team.

They will continue to give their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and balance.

"This is the way we plan competing. This is the way in which we tackle competition, and we want to stay equitable, and we intend to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to secure the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Stella commented following the race in Austin: "We view the next five races as chances to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

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

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the performance and continue executing good weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a perfect race."

"So definitely we have a significant opportunity, and the outcome 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 Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an completely accurate premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

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

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

He is now much closer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's hard to argue that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Both 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 now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next year 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 Lewis Hamilton has described many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect most in F1 would expect not.

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

Until the F1 cars run for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the constructors are performing next year.

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

So the two tests in Bahrain on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time a certain sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

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