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

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

They will continue to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a basis of equity and balance.

"This is the approach we intend racing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we want to remain equitable, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella commented after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the next five races as chances to increase the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

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

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

Every team this year have had to face the conundrum of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We must continue maximising the car performance and keep delivering 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 chance, and the outcome of this season and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not placed in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

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

Hamilton would not claim even now 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 ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in F1 would expect not.

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

Before the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next year, no-one will understand how the teams are performing next year.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes 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 sense of relative performance emerges.

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