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Do 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 confront with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this year, but they see no reason to alter their method to running the team.

They will continue to give their two drivers the best chance they can and operate the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This is the approach we intend competing. This is the philosophy in which we approach competition, and we aim to stay equitable, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of numerous title battles. He claimed the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver made up 17 points under the previous points system in two races to win the championship, while the McLaren team collapsed.

And he missed out on the championship as engineer to Fernando Alonso in 2010, when Ferrari made errors in their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the season and enabled Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from their grasp.

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Texas: "We view the next five races as chances to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a team driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We lean on the experience. I can remember at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that wins the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by mathematics."

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 concentrate on their 2025 car while also ensuring they are as ready as they can be for the significant rules overhaul scheduled for 2026.

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

McLaren started this year with the fastest car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They continued to improve it for a while, but were finding reduced benefits. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were getting on their 2025 car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to the following season.

Red Bull have caught up since bringing their new underfloor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team boss Stella stated he believed Norris had the pace to compete for the victory in Texas had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the performance and continue executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you think of a Grand Prix like Baku City Circuit, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a perfect performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, it's uncertain the inquiry has an completely correct premise. It's correct that each of Hamilton and Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Albon currently appear quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not consistently, at least.

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

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

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the race.

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

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to accept their statements.

Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the regulation changes next season will suit him; he has never particularly liked 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 many times this season. But not every driver struggle in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the beginning of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I believe most in Formula 1 would expect not.

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

Until the F1 cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will understand how the teams are performing next year.

The first test, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams 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 18-20 February will be the initial occasion some kind of sense of comparative speed becomes apparent.

But, as always, it's only at the first race that the true and accurate picture will become clear.