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Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

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

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

"This represents the way we intend racing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we aim to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two races to win the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he missed out on the championship as race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari messed up their strategy at the final race of the season and allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella said following the Grand Prix in Austin: "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 decision as to a driver, this will only be led by the numbers."

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to confront the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change scheduled for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the start 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 the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the car performance and continue executing strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't execute a flawless race."

"So definitely we have a significant opportunity, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our control. It's not in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct basis. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now faring much better.

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

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

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

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on average Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

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 particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

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

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

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season'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 looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the teams wanted to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

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

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