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Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to 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 year, 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 balance.

"This represents the approach we plan racing. This remains the way in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to apply equality to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous championship fights. He won the title as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Stella said after the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix 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 the calculations."

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

Every team this season have had to face the conundrum of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major regulation change coming for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They continued to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Austin had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the performance and keep delivering good weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the outcome of this season and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an entirely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Lewis 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 not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monegasque made his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

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

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, 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 driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know Next Year's Competitive Order?

Before the cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will understand how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams preferred to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain sense of comparative speed becomes apparent.

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