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Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the obstacle they encounter with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to alter their approach to running the team.

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

"This is the approach we plan racing. This is the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we want to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Andrea Stella said after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can remember at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by mathematics."

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

All teams this year have had to face the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a team 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 - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their updated floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the performance and continue executing good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an entirely accurate premise. It's correct that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring much better.

Carlos Sainz and Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

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

Both Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping 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 understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Before the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are looking next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain indication of comparative speed emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate picture will become clear.