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

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they confront with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to change their strategy to managing the team.

They will persist to give their two drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This is the approach we plan competing. This is the way in which we tackle competition, and we want to stay fair, and we want to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He claimed the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he missed out on the championship as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team made errors in their strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella commented after the race in Austin: "We view 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 the numbers."

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

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

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

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 considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

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

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

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Austin had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the performance and continue delivering good weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

"Therefore we have a significant chance, and the result of this season and the drivers' championship 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 accurate basis. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are now performing much better.

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

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

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

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will understand how the constructors are performing next year.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the press.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain sense of comparative speed becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate picture will emerge.