The Red Bull team's driver Max Verstappen reduced the gap in the drivers' championship by winning both the sprint race and feature races at the US Grand Prix.
Lando Norris came second on Sunday to narrow Oscar Piastri's points advantage to 14 points with five races remaining.
Four-times championship winner Verstappen is now only 40 points trailing Piastri heading into this weekend's Mexican Grand Prix.
Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?
McLaren are well aware of the obstacle they encounter with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to alter their method to running the team.
They will continue to give both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.
"This represents the manner we intend competing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle competition, and we want to stay fair, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."
Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He claimed the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while McLaren imploded.
And he missed out on the title as race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari messed up their strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the title from under their noses.
Andrea Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be led by mathematics."
"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by the calculations."
What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on This Year's Car?
Every team this year have had to face the dilemma of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.
In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.
McLaren began this season with the fastest car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.
They continued to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to next year.
The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their new underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Stella said he thought Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not ended up following Leclerc.
"We must keep maximising the car performance and continue delivering good weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect race."
"Therefore we have a large chance, and the outcome of this championship and the driver's title is in our control. It's not in someone else's hands."
Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?
Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely accurate basis. It's true that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.
Sainz and Alex Albon currently look very even. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.
Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying or race.
He is currently much closer than he was. He is regularly setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.
This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.
In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.
Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.
There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not all struggle in this way.
Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.
How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?
Until the F1 cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, no-one will understand how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.
The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, 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 February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time a certain indication of comparative speed becomes apparent.
But, as always, it's only at the season opener that the complete and precise situation will emerge.
