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Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the challenge they confront with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to modify their method to running the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of equity and equanimity.

"This is the approach we intend competing. This remains the way in which we approach racing, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to apply equality to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the lead on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can remember at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you go to 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?

All teams this season have had to face the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the significant regulation change scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They continued 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 car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he thought Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the car performance and continue delivering good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a perfect race."

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the outcome of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is currently much closer than he was. He is consistently 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 Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on balance Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now 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 change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this year. But not all struggle in this way.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect most in Formula 1 would expect not.

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

Until the cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will understand how the constructors are looking next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the teams preferred to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time a certain sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's only at the season opener that the complete and precise situation will become clear.