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

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the difficulty they confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to modify their approach to running the team.

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

"This is the way we plan racing. This remains the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we aim to stay fair, and we want to maintain equal treatment to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer made up seventeen points under the previous points system in two races to secure the title, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he lost the championship as engineer to Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team messed up their race strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and enabled Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the championship from their grasp.

Stella stated after the race in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the gap on Max. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a team driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

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

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to confront the conundrum of for how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also ensuring they are as prepared as they can be for the major regulation change coming for 2026.

In F1, it's usually the case that if a team gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that advantage can continue for some time - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules changed.

McLaren began this year with the best car, after investing a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They continued to develop it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were getting on their 2025 season car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their updated underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Andrea Stella said he believed Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Austin had he not finished following Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the car performance and continue delivering strong weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

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

Team Changes: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an completely accurate premise. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently faring much better.

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

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

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

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

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to argue that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari driver this year.

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

Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the regulation changes 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 change constructors, as Lewis Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I believe the majority in Formula 1 would expect not.

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

Before the F1 cars are driven for the first time in winter testing next season, nobody will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

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

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the initial occasion a certain sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the complete and precise situation will emerge.