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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

The McLaren team are well aware of the challenge they confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they don't believe to modify their strategy to managing the team.

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

"This is the manner we plan racing. This is the way in which we approach racing, and we want to remain equitable, and we intend to apply equal treatment to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea 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 made up 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while McLaren collapsed.

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

Stella commented after the race in Austin: "We view the next five races as chances to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by the numbers."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on The Current Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, 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 were modified.

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

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

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their new floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the performance and continue executing good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a race like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the result of this championship and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely correct basis. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently performing much better.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon do now appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

Hamilton has failed to outperform Charles Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is currently significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and dropped 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 currently, it's hard to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; 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 Lewis Hamilton has explained many times this year. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen face challenges if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Team Performance?

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

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams preferred to understand their initial track time 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 sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the complete and precise picture will become clear.