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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 obstacle they face with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to change their strategy to managing the team.

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

"This is the approach we intend competing. This is the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we want to remain equitable, and we intend to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he missed out on the title as engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the title from their grasp.

Andrea Stella said after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix 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 rely on the past experience. I can remember at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually 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 This Year's Car?

Every team this season have had to face the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major rules overhaul scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

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

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Austin had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the car performance and continue executing good weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the result of this season and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently performing much better.

Carlos Sainz and Albon currently appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this season.

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

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all struggle in this way.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will understand how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain indication of comparative speed emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise picture will become clear.