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

McLaren are well aware of the difficulty they face with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they see no reason to alter their method to running the team.

They will persist to provide both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the way we plan racing. This is the method in which we approach competition, and we want to remain equitable, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Stella said after the race in Texas: "We view the next five races as opportunities to increase the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

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

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to face the dilemma of how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the significant rules overhaul 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 long time to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage 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 began this season with the best car, after investing a lot of technical development into their 2025 design.

They did continue to develop it for a period, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Texas had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and continue executing good weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the outcome of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not placed in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely correct premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring much better.

Sainz and Albon do now appear very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is currently much closer than he previously. He is regularly setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season 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 Hamilton has described many times this year. But not all struggle in this way.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Competitive Order?

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

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is private because the teams wanted to understand 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 a certain indication of comparative speed emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the season opener that the true and accurate situation will emerge.