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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

McLaren are well aware of the obstacle they face with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to modify their approach to managing the team.

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

"This represents the manner we plan racing. This is the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we want to remain equitable, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

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

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

Andrea Stella stated following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the lead on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on The Current 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 prepared as they can be for the major rules overhaul scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, 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 last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

The McLaren team started this season with the best car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he believed Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Austin had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

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

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon currently appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

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

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

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

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

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, 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 hoping the new rules next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in Formula 1 would expect not.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Before the F1 cars run for the first time in winter testing next year, no-one will know how the teams are looking 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 initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance emerges.

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