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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they encounter with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to change 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 balance.

"This represents the approach we intend competing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we want to remain fair, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he missed out on the championship as race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team made errors in their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the championship from under their noses.

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

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to face the conundrum of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Stella said he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the performance and continue delivering strong race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon currently look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

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

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this year. But not all struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of indication of relative performance emerges.

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