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

McLaren are well aware of the obstacle they encounter with Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they see no reason to change their approach to managing the team.

They will continue to provide their two drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the approach we intend competing. This remains the way in which we approach competition, and we want to remain fair, and we want to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a veteran of many championship fights. He won the championship as 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 title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the title as race engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella said following the Grand Prix in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by the numbers."

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

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on The Current Car?

Every team this season have had to face the conundrum of how long to concentrate on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the major rules overhaul scheduled for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they succeed, that advantage can continue for some time - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations changed.

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

They did continue to improve it for a while, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an easy decision to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their new floor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he thought Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Texas had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to continue optimising the performance and continue delivering strong race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't deliver a perfect performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely accurate basis. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

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

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

He is currently much closer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on average Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this season.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos 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 hoping the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

There is a lot for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe the majority in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the cars run for the first time in pre-season testing next year, nobody will know how the teams are looking next year.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

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

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