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

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they encounter with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to modify their strategy to running the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and balance.

"This is the way we plan racing. This remains the way in which we approach racing, and we aim to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He won the title as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team messed up their strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella stated following the race in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall 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 claims the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Stop Development on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to confront the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major regulation change coming for 2026.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They did continue 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 versus 2026, it became an easy decision to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Austin had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and continue delivering good weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

"Therefore we have a significant opportunity, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely accurate basis. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing much better.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon do now appear very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

He is currently much closer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths 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 Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, 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 superior Ferrari driver this season.

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Until the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will know how the teams are performing 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 press.

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

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the true and accurate picture will emerge.