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Must McLaren Accept Reality of F1 - That if You Want Win, It's Not Always Possible to Play Fair?

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they encounter with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the drivers' championship this year, but they don't believe to change their strategy to running the team.

They will persist to provide their two drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a foundation of fairness and equanimity.

"This is the approach we intend racing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we aim to stay equitable, and we intend to maintain equality to both drivers."

Team boss Stella is a seasoned expert of many championship fights. He won the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in 2007 when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the old scoring system in two Grands Prix to secure the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

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

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

"We rely on the 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 claims the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

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

In Formula 1, it's usually the situation that if a team gets it wrong at the beginning of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to recover. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - consider the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the rules were modified.

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

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

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their new underfloor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Austin had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We must continue maximising the performance and keep delivering good race weekends. And from this point of view, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

"So definitely we have a significant opportunity, and the result of this season and the driver's title is in our hands. It's not in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, it's uncertain the inquiry has an entirely accurate basis. It's correct that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult first halves of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing significantly improved.

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

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

He is now much closer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying 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 last weekend in Texas, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a second behind his teammate when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

Looking back, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Nevertheless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on average Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this year.

Both Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even now that he was completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next year will suit him; he has never particularly liked these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not all faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 when he transferred to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I suspect most in Formula 1 would expect not.

When Will We Know Next Year's Competitive Order?

Before the F1 cars run for the first time in winter testing next season, nobody will know how the constructors are performing in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to understand their initial track time of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

So the two tests in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time some kind of sense of relative performance becomes apparent.

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