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Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they encounter with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to alter their strategy to running the team.

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

"This represents the manner we intend racing. This is the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he lost the championship as engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari messed up their race strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the next five races as chances to extend the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach 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 determined by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on The Current Car?

Every team this year have had to face the conundrum of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the major regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

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 considerable period to catch up. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their new underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the car performance and keep executing strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an completely accurate premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring much better.

Sainz and Albon do now look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

He is currently much closer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver 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 currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

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

When Will We Know Next Year's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars run for the first time in winter testing next season, nobody will know how the teams are performing next year.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time some kind of sense of comparative speed emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate situation will emerge.