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

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

They will continue to provide both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and balance.

"This is the way we plan racing. This remains the way in which we approach racing, and we want to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

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

And he lost the championship as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the championship and allowed Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the championship from their grasp.

Stella commented after the race in Austin: "We view 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 team driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

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

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

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

McLaren started this year with the fastest car, after putting a lot of technical development into their 2025 design.

They continued to develop it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their updated floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the car performance and continue delivering good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely correct premise. It's correct that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

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

Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is currently much closer than he previously. He is consistently 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 Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this year.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

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

The first test, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to understand their first running of the new engines without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Sakhir on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

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