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

The McLaren team are well aware of the obstacle they confront with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to change their approach to managing the team.

They will continue to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the manner we intend racing. This remains the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to remain equitable, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He claimed the title as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the next five races as chances to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

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

In F1, it's typically the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

The McLaren team started this year 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 experiencing diminishing returns. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue maximising the car performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race 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 championship and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely correct basis. It's correct that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing much better.

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

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

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

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

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

Each of 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 currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

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

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Before the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the teams are looking next year.

The first test, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain sense of relative performance emerges.

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