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

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

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

"This is the way we plan competing. This is the method in which we approach racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

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

And he lost the title as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team made errors in their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the championship from under their noses.

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

"We lean on the experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

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

All teams this year have had to confront the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major regulation change coming for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team 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 design.

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward decision to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their updated floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he thought Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the car performance and continue executing strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we failed to optimize 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 drivers' championship is in our control. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently performing much better.

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

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

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, 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 racer this year.

Both Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

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 driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know Next Year's Competitive Order?

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

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the teams preferred to get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain indication of relative performance emerges.

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