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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 difficulty they confront with Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to change their strategy to running the team.

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

"This is the manner we plan racing. This is the way in which we approach racing, and we want to remain fair, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team boss Andrea Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the championship as engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari driver 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 race engineer to Alonso in 2010, when the Ferrari team made errors in their race strategy at the final race of the championship and allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the title from under their noses.

Stella said after the race in Austin: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the lead on Max. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be determined by mathematics."

"We rely on the experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is determined by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Development on The Current Car?

All teams this year have had to face the conundrum of how long to focus on their 2025 season car while also making sure they are as ready 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 benefit can continue for some time - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

They continued to improve it for a period, but were experiencing reduced benefits. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to redirect attention to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since introducing their new underfloor and front wing at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car stays competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Norris had the pace to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up following Leclerc.

"We just have to keep maximising the performance and keep executing good 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 flawless race."

"So definitely we have a significant chance, and the outcome of this season and the drivers' championship is in our control. It's not placed in another team's control."

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an completely correct premise. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the championship, in different ways, and that they are currently faring significantly improved.

Sainz and Alex Albon currently appear quite balanced. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying or Grand Prix.

He is currently significantly nearer than he previously. He is regularly qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Hamilton's preferred circuits, he was a full second behind his teammate when the Monaco driver made his tire change, and dropped thirteen seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

Looking back, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to claim that on average Charles Leclerc has not been the better Ferrari racer this season.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about 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 fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is expecting the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Hamilton has described repeatedly this season. But not all struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was performing well from the start of the 2023 season when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max 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?

Until the cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, nobody will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The initial session, in Barcelona on January 26-30, is private because the teams preferred to understand their first running of the power unit changes without the prying eyes of the media.

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

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