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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the challenge they confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to change their approach to managing the team.

They will continue 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 plan racing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain equitable, and we want to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

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

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

"We rely on the past 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 championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

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

Every team this season have had to face the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's usually the case 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 succeed, that benefit can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the car performance and continue delivering strong race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely correct basis. It's true that each of Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now performing much better.

Carlos Sainz and Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

He is currently significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles 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 Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

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

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will understand how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the teams wanted to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

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

But, as always, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise picture will become clear.