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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they confront with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to alter their strategy to running the team.

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

"This represents the manner we plan competing. This is the way in which we approach racing, and we want to remain equitable, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he missed out on the championship as engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari messed up their race strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

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

"We must keep optimising the car performance and continue delivering good weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

"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 someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely correct premise. It's true that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon do now appear very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc frequently at all this season, 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 battles it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

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

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next season, no-one will know how the constructors are looking next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

So the two tests 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 always, it's not until the first race that the complete and precise situation will emerge.