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

The McLaren team are well aware of the obstacle they encounter with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to change their method to managing the team.

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

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

Team boss Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He claimed the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to win the championship, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella said following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances 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 determined by the numbers."

"We rely on the 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 make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to face the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

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 recover. 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 began this season with the best car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They continued to improve it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he thought Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the car performance and keep delivering strong race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't execute a perfect race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now faring much better.

Sainz and Albon currently look quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or race.

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 Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

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

Hamilton would not claim even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not all struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

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 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 initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance emerges.

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