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Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this year, but they see no reason to modify their method to running the team.

They will continue to give both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the way we intend racing. This is the way in which we approach racing, and we want to remain fair, and we want to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 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 championship as engineer to Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Andrea Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as opportunities to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

"We rely on the past experience. I can remember at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on This Year's Car?

Every team this year have had to face the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an easy decision to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella said he thought Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the car performance and keep executing good weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

"So definitely we have a large chance, and the outcome of this championship and the driver's title is in our control. It's not placed in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis 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 year, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

He is now much closer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the summer break.

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

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this year.

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

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 suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

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

Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?

Until the cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the teams are performing next year.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of comparative speed becomes apparent.

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