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

McLaren are well aware of the obstacle they confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to change their strategy to managing the team.

They will persist to give their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and balance.

"This is the approach we intend racing. This is the way in which we tackle competition, and we want to remain equitable, and we intend to apply equality to both drivers."

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

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

Andrea Stella said following the race in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap 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 rely on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the third-placed driver that claims the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on The Current Car?

Every team this year have had to face the dilemma of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the significant regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's typically the situation that if a team gets it wrong 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 most recent occasion the rules were modified.

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

They continued to develop it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car versus the 2026 car, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the pace to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue maximising the car performance and keep delivering strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an entirely correct premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring much better.

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

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

He is now much closer than he previously. He is regularly setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque made his tire change, and lost thirteen seconds over the rest of the race.

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

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos 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 currently that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

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

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in Formula 1 would expect not.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Until the cars run for the first time in winter testing next year, no-one will understand how the constructors are performing next year.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the teams preferred to get their heads around their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

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

But, as ever, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise situation will emerge.