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

McLaren are well aware of the challenge they encounter with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to alter their strategy to managing the team.

They will continue to give their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and balance.

"This represents the approach we intend racing. This remains the philosophy in which we tackle competition, and we want to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He won the title as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen 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 messed up their strategy at the final race of the championship and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella stated following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view 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 mathematics."

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

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

All teams this season have had to face the conundrum of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 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 team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They continued to improve it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their updated floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the performance and continue delivering strong race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't execute a flawless race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely correct basis. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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 was. He is consistently setting times 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 Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on average Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will know how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the teams wanted to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

So the two tests in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 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 picture will emerge.