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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to change their method to running the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the manner we intend racing. This remains the method in which we approach racing, and we want to stay fair, and we intend to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the previous points system in two races to secure the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

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

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

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that wins the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by mathematics."

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

Every team this year 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 regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations changed.

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

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

"We just have to continue optimising the car performance and keep executing strong race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely correct basis. It's correct that both Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Albon do now look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

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

He is now much closer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction 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 Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

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

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed 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 described many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect most in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars run for the first time in winter testing next year, no-one will understand how the teams are performing next year.

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

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise situation will emerge.