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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

McLaren are well aware of the difficulty they encounter with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to modify their method to managing the team.

They will persist to provide their two drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we plan competing. This remains the way in which we tackle racing, and we aim to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He won the title as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella said after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to extend the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on The Current Car?

Every team this season have had to confront the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's usually the case that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to catch up. 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 rules changed.

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to redirect attention to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Stella said he thought Norris had the speed to compete for the victory in Texas had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't execute 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 in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an entirely accurate premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

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

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

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

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

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

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

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I suspect most in F1 would expect not.

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

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

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the teams wanted to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time a certain sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

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