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

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

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

"This is the manner we intend racing. This remains the way in which we tackle racing, and we want to remain equitable, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of numerous championship fights. He won the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, 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 last Grand Prix of the championship and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Andrea Stella commented after the race in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the lead on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's in fact the third-placed driver that claims the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Stop Development on This Year's Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to redirect attention to next year.

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

"We must continue maximising the performance and keep executing strong race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the result of this championship and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer 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 say even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal 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.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect most in Formula 1 would expect not.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their initial track time 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 first time some kind of indication of relative performance emerges.

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate situation will become clear.