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

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

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

"This represents the approach we intend racing. This remains the way in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay equitable, and we intend to apply equality to our drivers."

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

And he lost the championship as race engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team made errors in their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you go to the last race and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on This Year's Car?

Every team this year have had to face the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations changed.

The McLaren team started this year with the fastest car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the car performance and keep executing good weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely accurate premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc very often 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 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on balance Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

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

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

Until the cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will know how the constructors are performing next year.

The first test, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time some kind of indication of comparative speed emerges.

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