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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Be Fair?

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

They will persist to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a basis of equity and balance.

"This represents the approach we intend racing. This remains the method in which we tackle racing, and we want to remain equitable, and we want to apply equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many title battles. He won the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he missed out on the title 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 the Red Bull team to snatch the championship from their grasp.

Andrea Stella stated after the race in Austin: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

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

Why Did McLaren Stop Development on The Current Car?

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

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

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

They did continue to improve 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 straightforward decision to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their updated floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue optimising the performance and continue delivering strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying or race.

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly setting times 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 Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

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

Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

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

When Will We Know Next Year's Competitive Order?

Until the cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will understand how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the press.

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

But, as ever, it's not until the first race that the true and accurate situation will become clear.