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Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

McLaren are fully conscious of the obstacle they encounter with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to change their method to running the team.

They will persist to provide their two drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of equity and equanimity.

"This is the approach we plan competing. This is the method in which we approach competition, and we want to remain equitable, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He won the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the previous points system in two races to secure the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he lost the championship 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 season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from their grasp.

Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on The Current Car?

Every team this year have had to face the conundrum of for how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

McLaren began this season with the fastest car, after putting 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 bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he thought Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the performance and continue delivering good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's correct that both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Albon currently appear very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

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

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

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will understand how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain indication of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the season opener that the true and accurate situation will emerge.