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Do McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Be Fair?

McLaren are fully conscious of the obstacle they face with Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to alter their approach to managing the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the approach we plan competing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle competition, and we aim to remain equitable, and we want to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He won the title as engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two Grands Prix to win the title, while the McLaren team imploded.

And he missed out on the title as engineer to Fernando Alonso in the 2010 season, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from their grasp.

Andrea Stella stated after the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only 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 last race 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 the calculations."

Why Did McLaren Cease Development on This Year's Car?

Every team this year have had to confront the dilemma of how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as prepared as they can be for the significant rules overhaul coming for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that advantage can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

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

Red Bull have closed the gap since bringing their updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We must continue optimising the performance and continue executing good weekends. And from this point of view, if you consider a race like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

"So definitely we have a significant opportunity, 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 Change Constructors?

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

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

Hamilton has not beaten Charles Leclerc frequently at all this year, either in qualifying or race.

He is now significantly nearer than he was. He is consistently setting times within a few hundredths of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's four-two to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second slower than his teammate when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari racer this year.

Each of Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next year will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

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

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect the majority in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will know how the teams are performing next year.

The initial session, in Catalunya on January 26-30, is private because the teams wanted to get their heads around their first running of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the media.

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

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