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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to change their method to running the team.

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

"This represents the way we intend racing. This remains the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He won the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to confront the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the major regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their updated floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the car performance and keep executing good weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless race."

"Therefore we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an completely correct basis. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

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

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

He is currently much closer than he was. 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 favourite circuits, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the cars run for the initial time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the teams wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain sense of comparative speed emerges.

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