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Must 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 confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they don't believe to modify their strategy to running the team.

They will continue to provide their two drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and balance.

"This is the way we intend racing. This is the method in which we tackle competition, and we want to remain equitable, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He claimed the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Andrea Stella stated after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the past 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 third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this season have had to face the conundrum of for how long to focus on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the major regulation change scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

The McLaren team began this year 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 reduced benefits. So when looking at the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 season car compared to the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their new underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he believed Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

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

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely correct basis. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

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

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

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

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's hard to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I believe the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, no-one will understand how the teams are looking next year.

The first test, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the teams preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time some kind of sense of comparative speed becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's only at the season opener that the complete and precise picture will emerge.