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Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they confront with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to alter their method to managing the team.

They will continue to provide both drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a foundation of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the way we plan competing. This remains the method in which we approach competition, and we aim to remain fair, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He claimed the championship as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to win the championship, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella commented following the Grand Prix in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix 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 the numbers."

"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 claims the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by mathematics."

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

All teams this season have had to confront the conundrum of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the major rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They continued to develop it for a period, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to the following season.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the performance and keep delivering good weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

"So definitely we have a large opportunity, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's correct that both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon do now look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

He is currently much closer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous 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 remaining portion of the race.

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

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a great deal for a driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. 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 Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would expect not.

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

Before the cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next season, no-one will understand how the constructors are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona 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 scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of indication of comparative speed becomes apparent.

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the complete and precise picture will become clear.