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

McLaren are well aware of the difficulty they encounter with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to alter their method to running the team.

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

"This is the manner we plan racing. This is the way in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we want to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He claimed the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he lost the championship as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their strategy at the final race of the season and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the title from their grasp.

Stella said after the race in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the lead on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be led by the numbers."

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

Why Did McLaren Stop Development on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to confront the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the significant rules overhaul scheduled for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

McLaren started this year with the best car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he thought Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the car performance and continue executing good weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

"Therefore we have a large chance, and the result of this championship and the driver's title is in our control. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying or race.

He is currently significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque made his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

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

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

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will understand 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 get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's only at the season opener that the complete and precise picture will become clear.