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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they confront with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to alter their strategy to running the team.

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

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

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He claimed the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he lost the championship as engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the season and allowed Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the title from their grasp.

Andrea Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on This Year's Car?

Every team this season have had to face 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 scheduled for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They continued to improve it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he thought Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the performance and continue delivering good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

"Therefore we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this championship and the driver's title is in our control. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely accurate premise. It's correct that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

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

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

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

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

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

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

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

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will know how the constructors are looking next year.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams preferred to understand their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Bahrain on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain sense of relative performance emerges.

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