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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the challenge they face with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this year, but they don't believe to change their approach to managing the team.

They will persist to give their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we intend competing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we aim to remain fair, and we intend to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two races to win the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

Andrea Stella said after the race in Texas: "We view the next five races as opportunities to increase the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you go to the last race 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 Stop Upgrades on This Year's Car?

Every team this year have had to confront the conundrum of for how long to focus on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major regulation change coming for 2026.

In F1, it's typically the case that if a team makes mistakes at the start 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 - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

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

They continued to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he believed Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

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

"So definitely we have a large chance, and the result of this championship and the driver's title is in our control. It's not in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's true that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying or race.

He is currently significantly nearer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's hard to argue that on average Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will suit him; 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 Hamilton has explained many times this season. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the F1 cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will understand how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to understand their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain indication of comparative speed emerges.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise situation will become clear.