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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 well aware of the difficulty they confront with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to modify their approach to running the team.

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

"This represents the manner we intend competing. This remains the way in which we tackle racing, and we aim to remain equitable, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season 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 race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from their grasp.

Stella stated after the race in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to extend the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team 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 third-placed driver that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

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

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

In F1, it's usually the case that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

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

They continued to improve it for a period, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Austin had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

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

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the result of this season and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

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

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is currently much closer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

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

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this year.

Both Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next year will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described many times this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect most in F1 would expect not.

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

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to understand their first running of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the press.

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

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