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

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they confront with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they see no reason to modify their method to managing the team.

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

"This is the approach we plan competing. This is the way in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay equitable, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up 17 points under the old scoring system in two races to secure the championship, while McLaren imploded.

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

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

"We lean on the past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the last race and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

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

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations changed.

McLaren started this season with the best car, after putting 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 bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since bringing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Texas had he not finished behind Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the performance and continue delivering strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't execute a perfect race."

"Therefore we have a large opportunity, and the outcome of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not placed in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an entirely accurate premise. It's true that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring much better.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

Lewis Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc very often at all this season, either in qualifying sessions or Grand Prix.

He is now much closer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on average Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to accept their statements.

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

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will understand how the constructors are looking next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams preferred to get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

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

But, as ever, it's not until the season opener that the true and accurate situation will emerge.