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

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

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

"This represents the manner we plan racing. This remains the method in which we tackle competition, and we want to remain equitable, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of numerous championship fights. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he missed out on the title as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella said after the race in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you go to the last race 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 the calculations."

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

All teams this season have had to confront the dilemma of for how long to focus 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 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 catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and continue executing good 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 race."

"So definitely we have a large chance, and the outcome of this championship and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on balance Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult 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 the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe most in F1 would expect not.

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

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

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

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

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