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Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

The McLaren team are fully conscious of the obstacle they face with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to modify their strategy to managing the team.

They will persist to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a basis of equity and balance.

"This is the way we intend competing. This remains the way in which we approach racing, and we aim to remain equitable, and we intend to apply equality to both drivers."

Team principal Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous championship fights. He claimed the title as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two races to secure the championship, while McLaren imploded.

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

Stella stated following the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to increase the gap on Max. And when it involves having to make a call as to a team driver, this will only be determined by the numbers."

"We rely 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 third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

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

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

In F1, it's typically the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can continue for some time - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

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

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the car performance and keep executing good weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we failed to optimize the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

First of all, it's uncertain the question has an entirely correct basis. It's true that each of Hamilton and Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are currently faring 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 yet the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

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

He is currently much closer than he previously. He is regularly setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred tracks, he was a full second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and dropped 13 seconds over the rest of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the best strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on balance Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari driver 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.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they change constructors, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not all struggle in this manner.

Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Before the cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next year, no-one will understand how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the scrutiny of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on 11-13 and February 18-20 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 true and accurate picture will become clear.