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

McLaren are well aware of the obstacle they face with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to modify their strategy to running the team.

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

"This represents the manner we plan competing. This remains the method in which we approach racing, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He won the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella said after the race in Austin: "We view the next five races as opportunities to extend 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 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 in fact the [driver in] third [place] that claims the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

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

All teams this season have had to confront the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their new underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Stella said he believed Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the performance and continue delivering strong race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless race."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the season, 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 "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

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

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the rest 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 hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this year.

Each of 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 hoping the new rules next year will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

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

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe most in Formula 1 would expect not.

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

Before the F1 cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will know how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their first running of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

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

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the true and accurate picture will emerge.