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Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they face with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to modify their method to managing the team.

They will persist to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the way we intend competing. This is the method in which we tackle competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he lost the title as engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team made errors in their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella said following the race in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

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

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

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to the following season.

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

"We must keep optimising the car performance and continue delivering good weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

"Therefore we have a significant opportunity, and the outcome of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an completely accurate basis. It's true that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are now performing much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

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

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

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

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the F1 cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will know how the constructors are performing next year.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain indication of relative performance emerges.

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