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

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

They will persist to give both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the way we intend competing. This remains the way in which we tackle 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 many championship fights. He won the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he missed out on the title as race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari messed up their race strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Stella commented following the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you reach the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to face the conundrum of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the major regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

McLaren began this year with the fastest car, after investing a lot of technical development into their 2025 design.

They continued to improve it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an easy decision to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their updated floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Austin had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a perfect race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely correct premise. It's correct that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

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

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this season.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained repeatedly this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I believe most in F1 would expect not.

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

Before the cars run for the first time in winter testing next year, no-one will know how the constructors are performing next year.

The first test, 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 pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain indication of relative performance emerges.

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