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Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

McLaren are well aware of the obstacle they encounter with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to change their approach to running the team.

They will persist to provide both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and balance.

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

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

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

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

"We lean on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by mathematics."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on This Year's Car?

All teams this year have had to confront the conundrum of 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 scheduled for the 2026 season.

In F1, 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 benefit can continue for some time - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

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

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their new floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Stella stated he believed Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Austin had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue maximising the performance and keep 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 deliver a perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely correct premise. It's correct that both Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon do now appear very even. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

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

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's hard to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not all faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

Until the cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the scrutiny of the press.

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

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise situation will become clear.