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

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

They will persist to give both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This is the way we plan competing. This remains the way in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella commented following the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the lead on Max. And when it comes to 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 final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this season 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 major rules overhaul coming for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

McLaren started this season with the fastest car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They did continue 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 compared to 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their updated floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and continue executing good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless race."

"Therefore we have a significant opportunity, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not placed in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct basis. It's correct that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear very even. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

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

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

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not every driver struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Until the cars run for the first time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the teams preferred to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the two tests in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of indication of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate picture will become clear.