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Must 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 season, but they don't believe to modify their strategy to running the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This represents the manner we intend racing. This remains the way in which we tackle competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

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

And he missed out on the championship as race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the title from under their noses.

Stella stated after the race in Austin: "We view the next five races as opportunities to increase the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be led by mathematics."

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

Why Did McLaren Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to confront the dilemma of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor 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 last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a while, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Stella stated he believed Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue optimising the car performance and continue delivering good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Albon do now appear very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Lewis 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 qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

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.

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

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

There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described many times this year. But not all struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 season when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I believe most in Formula 1 would expect not.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Until the F1 cars are driven for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will know how the constructors are performing next year.

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

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of indication of comparative speed becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the true and accurate picture will become clear.