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

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

They will continue to give both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the way we intend racing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He won the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to secure the title, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella stated following the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix 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 exclusively be led by the numbers."

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

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

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

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Austin had he not ended up following Leclerc.

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

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now faring much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently look very even. 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 Charles Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's hard to argue that on balance Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

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

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 benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

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

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect most in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

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

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

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 becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise situation will become clear.