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Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the challenge they confront with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this year, but they see no reason to modify their strategy to managing the team.

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

"This represents the manner we intend competing. This is the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to remain equitable, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while McLaren imploded.

And he lost the title 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 allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Stella stated following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the lead on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively 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 championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to confront the dilemma of for how long to focus 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 F1, it's usually the case that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

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

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the performance and keep executing strong race weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely correct premise. It's correct that both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

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

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

He is currently much closer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's hard to claim that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would expect not.

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

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

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

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

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