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

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

They will persist to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

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

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He claimed the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Stella commented after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that claims the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

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

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

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. 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 began this year with the fastest car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They continued to improve it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an easy decision to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their updated floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Austin had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the performance and keep delivering strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless race."

"Therefore we have a large chance, and the outcome of this season 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, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Both Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not every driver struggle in this way.

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

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

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

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance emerges.

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