Red Bull's Max Verstappen reduced the deficit in the championship standings by securing victory in both the sprint and feature races at the Austin Grand Prix.
Lando Norris finished in second position on race day to reduce his teammate Oscar Piastri's points advantage to 14 points with five Grands Prix left to go.
Four-time world champion Max Verstappen is now just 40 points trailing Piastri heading into this upcoming Mexico City Grand Prix.
Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?
McLaren are well aware of the obstacle they encounter with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to modify their method to running the team.
They will continue to provide both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.
"This represents the manner we intend racing. This is the method in which we approach racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to apply equal treatment to both drivers."
Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the title as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.
And he lost the championship as engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari messed up their race strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the title from their grasp.
Andrea Stella stated following the race in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities 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 lean on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the third-placed driver that claims the title. 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?
All teams this season have had to face the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant rules overhaul scheduled for the 2026 season.
In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.
The McLaren team began this year with the fastest car, after investing a lot of technical development into their 2025 design.
They continued to improve it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.
Red Bull have caught up since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.
"We must continue optimising the car performance and continue executing good weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a flawless race."
"Therefore we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this season and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not placed in another team's control."
Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?
First of all, it's uncertain the question has an completely accurate premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing much better.
Carlos Sainz and Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.
Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.
He is now much closer than he previously. He is consistently qualifying within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.
This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monegasque made his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.
Looking back, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this season.
Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.
Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the new rules next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.
There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not every driver struggle in this way.
Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in F1 would expect not.
When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?
Until the cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.
The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the teams preferred to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.
So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain indication of comparative speed emerges.
But, as always, it's not until the first race that the true and accurate situation will emerge.
