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Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they confront with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they see no reason to modify their method to managing the team.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Every team this season have had to confront the conundrum of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready 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 recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations changed.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the car performance and keep executing strong race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an entirely accurate premise. It's correct that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are now faring much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon do now appear very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is now much closer than he previously. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

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

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

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

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

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise situation will emerge.