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

The McLaren team are well aware of the difficulty they face with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they don't believe to modify their strategy to running the team.

They will continue to give their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a basis of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the way we plan competing. This remains the method in which we approach competition, and we aim to stay equitable, and we want to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella commented after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to extend the lead on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember 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 make decisions unless this is determined by mathematics."

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

Every team this season have had to face the conundrum of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the major regulation change scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a considerable period to catch up. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an easy decision to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct basis. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring much better.

Carlos Sainz and Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

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

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on average Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

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

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in F1 would expect not.

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

Until the cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next year, nobody will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the initial occasion a certain sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the true and accurate situation will emerge.