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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

McLaren are well aware of the obstacle they confront with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to alter their method to managing the team.

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

"This is the approach we plan racing. This is the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He claimed the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he missed out on the title as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team made errors in their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from their grasp.

Andrea Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

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

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

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

McLaren started this year with the best car, after putting a lot of technical development into their 2025 design.

They continued to develop it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Austin had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the car performance and continue executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an completely accurate premise. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing much better.

Carlos Sainz and Albon do now look very even. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is now much closer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to switch teams, 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 expecting the regulation changes next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described many times this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

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

The first test, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain indication of comparative speed emerges.

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