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Do McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

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

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

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

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He won the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari driver made up seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to win the title, while McLaren imploded.

And he missed out on the championship as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the final race of the season and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to sneak the championship from their grasp.

Stella stated after the race in Austin: "We look at the next five races as opportunities to extend the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the third-placed driver that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on This Year's Car?

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

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

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to the following season.

The Red Bull team have closed the gap since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Austin had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We just have to continue optimising the car performance and continue delivering strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this season and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an completely accurate premise. It's true that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat sticky opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monegasque completed his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

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

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the new rules next season will suit him; 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 explained repeatedly this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this way.

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Until the F1 cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are performing in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is behind closed doors because the teams wanted to understand their first running of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of sense of comparative speed emerges.

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