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

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

They will continue to give their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the way we intend competing. This remains the philosophy in which we tackle competition, and we want to remain fair, and we intend to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the title, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella stated after the race in Austin: "We look at the next five races as chances to increase the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by mathematics."

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

All teams this season have had to confront the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant rules overhaul coming for 2026.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

The McLaren team began this season with the best car, after putting a lot of technical development into their 2025 design.

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

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and continue executing strong race weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the result of this season and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not placed in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

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

He is currently much closer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained repeatedly 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 face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will understand how the constructors are looking next year.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of indication of relative performance emerges.

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