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

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to change 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 intend racing. This is the method in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain equitable, and we want to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to secure the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team made errors in their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella said after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as opportunities 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 mathematics."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

Every team this year 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 significant rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time 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.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and continue delivering good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

"So definitely we have a significant opportunity, and the outcome of this season and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely correct premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

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

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying or race.

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on balance Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

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

There is a lot for a racing 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 performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred 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 The Coming Season's Team Performance?

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

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

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of indication of comparative speed emerges.

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