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

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

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

"This represents the approach we intend competing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we aim to stay equitable, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two races to secure the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he lost the championship as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the championship from under their noses.

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to extend the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least 2007, 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 close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."

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

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time 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 started this season with the best car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he thought Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the car performance and keep executing strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a flawless race."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are now faring much better.

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

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

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on average Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Both Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

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

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in F1 would expect not.

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

Before the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain indication of relative performance becomes apparent.

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