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Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

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

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

"This is the way we intend racing. This remains the philosophy in which we tackle competition, and we want to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He claimed the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while McLaren collapsed.

And he missed out on the title as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team made errors in their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and allowed Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Stella stated after the race in Austin: "We look at the next five races as chances to increase the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by the calculations."

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

All teams this season have had to face the dilemma of how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the major regulation change scheduled for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a long time 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 season with the fastest car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They continued to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the performance and keep executing good weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the result of this championship and the driver's title is in our control. It's not placed in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely accurate basis. It's correct that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently look very even. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

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

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, 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 expecting the regulation changes next season 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 change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not all struggle in this way.

Fernando 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 changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will understand how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the teams wanted to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time some kind of sense of comparative speed becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate situation will become clear.