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

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

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

"This is the manner we plan competing. This remains the way in which we approach racing, and we aim to stay equitable, and we want to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He won the title as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the championship as race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the championship from their grasp.

Andrea Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as chances to extend the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

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

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

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

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a team 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 benefit can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were achieving 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 updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Texas had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the car performance and continue executing good weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

"So definitely we have a significant opportunity, and the outcome 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 Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an completely accurate basis. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon currently look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

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

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque made his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to argue that on balance Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next year will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know Next Year's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are performing next year.

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 power unit changes without the prying eyes of the press.

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

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate picture will emerge.