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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty 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 both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the approach we intend racing. This remains the way in which we tackle competition, and we want to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen 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 the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella commented after the race in Texas: "We look at the next five races as chances to increase the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

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

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

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

In F1, it's typically the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the car performance and continue delivering good weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

"Therefore we have a significant opportunity, and the result of this championship and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely accurate premise. It's true that each of Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

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

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

He is currently much closer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

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

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in Formula 1 would expect not.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will understand how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

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

But, as always, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate picture will become clear.