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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

The McLaren team are well aware of the obstacle they face with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to alter their strategy to managing the team.

They will continue to provide both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and balance.

"This is the approach we intend racing. This remains the method in which we approach racing, and we aim to remain equitable, and we want to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

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

And he lost the championship as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari messed up their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix 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 Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to face the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the situation 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 succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

McLaren began this year with the fastest car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They continued to improve it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

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

"So definitely we have a large chance, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our control. It's not placed in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

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

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

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?

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

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the teams wanted to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

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

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