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Must 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 drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to alter their method to managing the team.

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

"This represents the approach we plan competing. This is the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He won the title as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Stella commented following the race in Texas: "We view the next five races as opportunities to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

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

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

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

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

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

"We must keep maximising the car performance and continue delivering good weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely correct premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are now faring much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now look very even. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

He is now much closer than he was. 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 summer break.

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

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

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not claim even now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

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

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

Until the cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will understand how the constructors are performing next year.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

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

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate situation will become clear.