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

McLaren are well aware of the obstacle they encounter with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to change their approach to managing the team.

They will persist to give their two drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we intend competing. This is the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we want to stay equitable, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

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

And he missed out on the championship as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We lean on the past experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by the calculations."

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

All teams this season have had to face the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the significant rules overhaul scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the car performance and continue delivering strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

"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 in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an entirely accurate premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring much better.

Sainz and Albon currently appear quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform 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 small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's hard to argue that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

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

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of indication of comparative speed becomes apparent.

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