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

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

They will persist to provide both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and balance.

"This represents the way we intend competing. This remains the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as chances to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

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

All teams this year have had to confront the conundrum of how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella said he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the performance and keep executing 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 chance, and the result of this season and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct 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 significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon do now look very even. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

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

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

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 year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

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

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the constructors preferred to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

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

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate situation will emerge.