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

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to alter their strategy to running the team.

They will persist to give their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This is the approach we intend racing. This remains the method in which we tackle competition, and we want to remain fair, and we want to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He won the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to secure the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he missed out on the championship as engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to 2026, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the car performance and continue executing strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths 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 circuits, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

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

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

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the cars run for the initial time in winter testing next year, nobody will understand how the teams are performing next year.

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

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time some kind of indication of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise situation will emerge.