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

McLaren are fully conscious of the obstacle they confront with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they see no reason to modify their approach to managing the team.

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

"This is the approach we intend racing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we want to remain fair, and we want to maintain equality to our drivers."

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

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

Andrea Stella commented after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on This Year's Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period 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 rules were modified.

The McLaren team began this year with the best car, after investing 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 bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Austin had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the performance and keep executing strong race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring much better.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon currently look quite balanced. 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.

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

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on balance Charles 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 now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will understand how the constructors are looking next year.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the teams preferred to understand their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

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 always, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise picture will become clear.