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

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

They will persist to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the manner we plan competing. This remains the method in which we approach racing, and we want to stay fair, and we intend to apply equality to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a veteran of numerous championship fights. He won the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the next five races as opportunities to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

"We lean on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on This Year's Car?

Every team this season have had to confront the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the major regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and keep delivering good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely correct basis. It's true that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Albon currently look very even. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying or race.

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

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

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on balance 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 accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

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

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will understand how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of comparative speed emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise situation will become clear.