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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

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

They will persist to give their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of equity and balance.

"This is the approach we plan competing. This remains the way in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He claimed the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he missed out on the championship as race engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team made errors in their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and enabled Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the championship from their grasp.

Andrea Stella said following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as chances to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on The Current Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. 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 rules changed.

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Texas had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and keep executing good weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct basis. It's true that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

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

Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying sessions 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 battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on average Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

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 suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

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

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would expect not.

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

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

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors 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 Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate situation will emerge.