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Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

McLaren are well aware of the difficulty they face with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to alter their strategy to managing the team.

They will persist to give their two drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a foundation of equity and balance.

"This is the way we intend racing. This remains the way in which we approach competition, and we want to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He claimed the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he missed out on the championship as engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the season and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the championship from under their noses.

Stella commented after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's in fact the third-placed driver that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

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

All teams this season have had to confront the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Austin had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the performance and continue executing good weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a flawless race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely accurate premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

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

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monegasque made his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on average Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season 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 change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in Formula 1 would expect not.

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

Before the F1 cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

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

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

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