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

McLaren are fully conscious of the challenge they confront with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to modify their strategy to managing the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we plan competing. This remains the method in which we approach racing, and we want to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He claimed the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella stated following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the lead on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can remember at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that wins 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?

Every team this season have had to face the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the major regulation change scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the car performance and continue delivering strong race weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a flawless race."

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this championship and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing much better.

Carlos Sainz and Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis 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 really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would expect not.

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

Until the cars run for the first 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 private because the teams wanted to get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain indication of relative performance emerges.

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