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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

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

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

"This is the approach we plan competing. This remains the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella commented after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by the calculations."

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

All teams this year have had to face the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

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 long time to recover. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations 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 did continue to improve it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

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

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are now performing much better.

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

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

He is currently much closer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

Both 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 currently that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the F1 cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

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

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain sense of comparative speed emerges.

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