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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

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

They will persist to give their two drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the way we intend competing. This is the method in which we approach racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the title, while McLaren collapsed.

And he lost the title as engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team messed up their strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the title from under their noses.

Stella stated following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] 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 The Current Car?

Every team this year have had to face the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the major regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Austin had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the car performance and continue executing good race 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 perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an completely correct basis. It's correct that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently faring much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear very even. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying or race.

He is now much closer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on balance Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not all struggle 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 face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect most in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Before the F1 cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next season, no-one will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

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

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise situation will become clear.