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

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to alter their approach to running the team.

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

"This is the way we plan racing. This remains the way in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay equitable, and we want to apply equality to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He claimed the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he missed out on the championship as 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 enabled Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from their grasp.

Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you go to the last race and it's in fact the third-placed driver that claims the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on The Current Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

The McLaren team began this season with the fastest car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 season 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 compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy decision to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Stella said he believed Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the performance and continue delivering good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our control. It's not in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate basis. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring much better.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon do now appear very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is currently much closer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained repeatedly this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

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

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Team Performance?

Before the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will understand how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to understand 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 18-20 February will be the first time a certain sense of relative performance emerges.

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