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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the challenge they encounter with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to change their method to running the team.

They will continue to give their two drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we intend racing. This is the way in which we tackle racing, and we want to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost 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 allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the championship from their grasp.

Stella said after the race in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

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

Every team this season have had to face the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the significant regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

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

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he thought Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the performance and continue delivering good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

"Therefore we have a large chance, and the outcome of this season and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now faring much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear very even. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

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

He is currently significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on balance Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

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

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted 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 lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect most in F1 would expect not.

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

Until the F1 cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will understand how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

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

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