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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

McLaren are fully conscious of the challenge they encounter with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to modify their approach to running the team.

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

"This represents the manner we intend competing. This is the method in which we tackle competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

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

And he missed out on the championship as race engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari made errors in their strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the championship from under their noses.

Stella stated following the race in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

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

Why Did McLaren Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

Every team this year have had to confront the conundrum of how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring 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 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 - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

McLaren started this year with the fastest car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They continued to develop it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the car performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a flawless race."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring much better.

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

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

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 4-2 to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

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

Each of Lewis Hamilton and 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 now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

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

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

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 know how the teams are performing next year.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

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

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate picture will become clear.