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

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

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

"This represents the approach we plan competing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we want to stay fair, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous championship fights. He won the title as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Stella said after the race in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by mathematics."

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

All teams this year have had to face the conundrum of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations changed.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea 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 must continue optimising the car performance and continue executing strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential 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 someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an completely accurate premise. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on balance Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this year.

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Before the cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will know how the constructors are performing next year.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

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

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