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

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they encounter with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to alter their strategy to managing the team.

They will persist to give their two drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This is the approach we intend competing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He won the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the championship, while McLaren imploded.

And he missed out on the championship as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the final race of the championship and allowed Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Stella stated after the race in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on This Year's Car?

All teams this year have had to face the dilemma of how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring 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 team gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

McLaren started this season with the best car, after investing a lot of technical development into their 2025 design.

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We must continue maximising the performance and continue executing strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently performing much better.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon do now 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, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying or race.

He is now much closer than he was. 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 Lewis 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 race.

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

Both 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 now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

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

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of relative performance emerges.

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