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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they confront with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to modify their approach to running the team.

They will continue to provide both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

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

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella said following the Grand Prix in Texas: "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 exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you go to the last race and it's in fact the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Stop Development on This Year's Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. 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 rules changed.

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, 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 redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their updated floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the car performance and keep executing strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

"Therefore we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently faring much better.

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

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

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

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

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

Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - 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 understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not every driver struggle in this manner.

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

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Before the cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will know how the teams are performing next year.

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

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

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