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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this year, but they see no reason to change their approach to running the team.

They will persist to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a foundation of fairness and balance.

"This represents the approach we plan competing. This is the way in which we tackle competition, and we want to stay fair, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He claimed the title as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two races to secure the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he lost the title as engineer to Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari messed up their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to snatch the title from their grasp.

Andrea Stella commented after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

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

Why Did McLaren Stop Upgrades on This Year's Car?

All teams this year have had to face the conundrum of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for 2026.

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a team makes mistakes at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

The McLaren team started this season with the fastest car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

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

Red Bull 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 stated he thought Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Austin had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We just have to continue optimising the performance and continue executing strong race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an entirely correct basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now faring much better.

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

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Leclerc frequently at all this season, either in qualifying or race.

He is now significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two 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 thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, 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.

Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I believe the majority in F1 would expect not.

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

Before the F1 cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will know how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

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

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time some kind of sense of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the complete and precise picture will emerge.