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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

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

They will continue to provide both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and balance.

"This is the way we plan competing. This is the way in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the previous points system in two races to win the championship, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella commented following the race in Texas: "We view the next five races as chances to extend the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to face the conundrum of for how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the significant rules overhaul scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a team 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 benefit can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Texas had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the performance and keep delivering 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 execute a perfect performance."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the outcome of this championship and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's correct that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear very even. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

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

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

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

There is a great deal for a 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.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would expect not.

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

Until the F1 cars run for the first time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to understand their first running of the new engines without the scrutiny of the press.

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

But, as ever, it's not until the first race that the true and accurate picture will become clear.