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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

McLaren are fully conscious of the obstacle they encounter with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they don't believe to alter their strategy to running the team.

They will continue to provide their two drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the manner we plan competing. This is the method in which we tackle competition, and we want to stay equitable, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He won the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella commented after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team 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 reach the last race and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on The Current Car?

Every team 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 prepared as they can be for the major regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

The McLaren team started this season with the best car, after investing a lot of technical development into their 2025 season design.

They continued to improve it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus 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 front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the car performance and keep delivering good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely correct basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is currently significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, 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 second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

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

Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

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

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will know how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the two tests in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain indication of comparative speed emerges.

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate picture will emerge.