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Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they encounter with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to alter their method to running the team.

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

"This represents the way we plan racing. This remains the method in which we approach racing, and we want to remain fair, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the title as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella stated after the race in Texas: "We look at the next five races as chances to extend the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on The Current Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella stated he thought Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and keep executing strong race weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

"So definitely we have a significant opportunity, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not placed in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

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 consistently, at least.

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

He is currently much closer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to argue that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not every driver struggle in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would expect not.

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

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

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance emerges.

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