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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 challenge they confront with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to change their approach to running the team.

They will persist to give their two drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a foundation of equity and balance.

"This represents the way we plan competing. This remains the way in which we approach competition, and we aim to stay equitable, and we want to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he lost the title as engineer to Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella commented following the race in Austin: "We look at the next five races as chances to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to confront the dilemma of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the significant rules overhaul scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he thought Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

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

"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 someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely correct basis. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing much better.

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

Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying or race.

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on average Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari driver this season.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

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 benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will understand how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to understand their first running of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

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

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate picture will emerge.