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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they encounter with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to alter their approach to managing the team.

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

"This represents the approach we intend competing. This is the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as chances to increase the lead on Max. And when it involves 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 2007, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to face the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the major rules overhaul scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

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

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

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the car performance and continue delivering strong race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the outcome of this championship and the driver's title is in our control. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon do now appear 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, anyway.

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

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

This last 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 dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would expect not.

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

Until the cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors preferred to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's only at the season opener that the complete and precise situation will become clear.