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

McLaren are well aware of the difficulty they face with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to alter their approach to running the team.

They will continue to provide their two drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This represents the approach we plan racing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we want to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He claimed the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he missed out on the championship as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari messed up their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the next five races as chances to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that wins the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on This Year's Car?

All teams this season have had to confront the conundrum 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 scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

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

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

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Austin had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the car performance and keep delivering good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an entirely correct premise. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

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

Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying or race.

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 it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on average Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not all struggle in this way.

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

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Team Performance?

Before the F1 cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the teams preferred to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of comparative speed emerges.

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