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Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the challenge they encounter with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to modify their strategy to managing the team.

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

"This is the way we intend competing. This remains the way in which we tackle competition, and we want to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

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

Andrea Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's in fact the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Stop Development on The Current Car?

Every team this year have had to confront the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the major rules overhaul scheduled for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Austin had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the performance and keep executing good weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring much better.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of 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 much closer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

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

Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described many times this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

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

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

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

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the teams preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Bahrain on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time some kind of sense of comparative speed emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the true and accurate situation will become clear.