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

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

They will continue to provide both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This is the manner we plan competing. This is the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we aim to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella commented following the race in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that wins the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by mathematics."

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

All teams this year have had to confront the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the significant rules overhaul scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Stella stated he believed Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We must continue maximising the performance and continue delivering strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the result of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing much better.

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

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

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

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

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this year.

Both Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

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

There is a lot for a driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect most in Formula 1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Team Performance?

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

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

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

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