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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 confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to modify their approach to running the team.

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

"This is the way we intend racing. This remains the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to stay fair, and we intend to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He claimed the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the championship as race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and allowed Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from under their noses.

Andrea Stella stated following the race in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to extend the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We lean on the past experience. I can recall 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 championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

Every team this season have had to face the dilemma of for how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he thought Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the performance and continue delivering good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a flawless race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an entirely accurate premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now faring much better.

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

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

He is now much closer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque completed his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes 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 season. But not all struggle in this manner.

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

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

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the constructors are looking next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion some kind of indication of relative performance becomes apparent.

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