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

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

They will continue to provide both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the way we intend racing. This remains the way in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to apply equality to both drivers."

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

And he missed out on the title as race engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari made errors in their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the title from their grasp.

Andrea Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as chances to extend the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

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

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

The McLaren team began this year with the best car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 season design.

They continued to develop it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

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

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an completely correct premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon currently look very even. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

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

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

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to argue that on balance Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

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

Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not all struggle in this way.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I believe the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?

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

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the constructors preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of indication of comparative speed emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise picture will become clear.