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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 well aware of the difficulty they confront with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to alter their strategy to managing the team.

They will continue to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This is the approach we intend competing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He won the title as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari messed up their strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella stated following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, 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 close the door unless this is determined by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on This Year's Car?

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

In F1, it's usually the case that if a team 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 regulations were modified.

McLaren started this season with the best car, after investing a lot of technical development into their 2025 season design.

They continued to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the car performance and keep executing strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless race."

"Therefore we have a large chance, and the result of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct basis. It's true that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear very even. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

He is currently significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on balance Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next year will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described many times this year. But not every driver struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Before the cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time a certain indication of relative performance emerges.

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