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Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

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

They will persist to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a basis of equity and balance.

"This is the manner we intend competing. This is the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Andrea Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as opportunities to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the 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 the calculations."

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

All teams this year have had to confront the dilemma of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue maximising the car performance and keep executing good 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 perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now faring much better.

Carlos Sainz and Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next year will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

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

Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect most in Formula 1 would expect not.

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

Until the F1 cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will understand how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the constructors preferred to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the press.

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

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate situation will become clear.