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

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they confront with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to alter their approach to running the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the way we intend competing. This is the method in which we approach racing, and we aim to stay fair, and we want to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the championship from their grasp.

Andrea Stella said after the race in Austin: "We view the next five races as chances to increase the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's in fact the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to face the conundrum of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the major 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 advantage can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

McLaren began this season with the fastest car, after putting a lot of technical development 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 season car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.

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

"We must continue optimising the car performance and keep delivering strong weekends. And from this perspective, 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 significant chance, and the outcome of this championship and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing much better.

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

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

He is now much closer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

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

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this year.

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

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not every driver struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Before the cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of indication of comparative speed emerges.

But, as ever, it's only at the season opener that the complete and precise situation will become clear.