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Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

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

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

"This is the way we plan racing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle competition, and we aim to stay equitable, and we want to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He won the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he lost the championship as race engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari messed up their strategy at the final race of the season and allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from their grasp.

Stella stated following the race in Texas: "We look at the next five races as chances to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

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

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

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

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

McLaren started this year with the best car, after putting a lot of technical development into their 2025 season design.

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the performance and continue executing strong 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 race."

"Therefore we have a significant opportunity, and the outcome of this season and the driver's title is in our control. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an completely correct basis. It's correct that both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are now performing much better.

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

Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is currently much closer than he previously. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths 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 Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will suit him; 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 Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in F1 would expect not.

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

Until the cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will know how the teams are performing next year.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors preferred to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

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

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise situation will emerge.