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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

The McLaren team are well aware of the challenge they face with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they don't believe to alter their strategy to running the team.

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

"This is the way we plan competing. This remains the way in which we tackle competition, and we want to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He claimed the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he missed out on the title as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their strategy at the final race of the season and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella said after the race in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on The Current Car?

Every team this season have had to confront the conundrum of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the major rules overhaul scheduled for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the car performance and keep delivering good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's correct that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring much better.

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

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

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

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

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

Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next year will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

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

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. 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 Competitive Order?

Until the F1 cars run for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the constructors are performing next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors 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 Bahrain on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain indication of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the complete and precise situation will become clear.