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

McLaren are well aware of the challenge they encounter with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to alter their method to running the team.

They will continue to provide their two drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This is the way we plan competing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

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

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

Andrea Stella said following the race in Austin: "We look at the next five races as chances to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 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 determined by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Stop Upgrades on This Year's Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating 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 closed the gap since bringing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the car performance and continue executing strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the result of this championship 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, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

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

Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying or race.

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's hard to argue that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - 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 lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in F1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?

Until the cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will understand how the constructors are looking next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the season opener that the true and accurate situation will emerge.