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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

McLaren are well aware of the difficulty they confront with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to modify their approach to managing the team.

They will continue to provide both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the manner we plan competing. This is the method in which we approach competition, and we want to remain equitable, and we intend to apply equality to both drivers."

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

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

Andrea Stella stated following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that claims the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by mathematics."

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

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

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Stella said 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 continue maximising the car performance and keep delivering good weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

"Therefore we have a significant opportunity, and the outcome of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not placed in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's true that each of Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently faring much better.

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

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying or race.

He is now much closer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

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

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I believe the majority in F1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Team Performance?

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

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams preferred to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as ever, it's not until the first race that the complete and precise situation will become clear.