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

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

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

"This represents the manner we intend competing. This is the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we aim to stay equitable, and we intend to apply equality to our drivers."

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

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

Stella said after the Grand Prix in Austin: "We view the next five races as opportunities to extend the gap 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 past experience. I can remember at least the 2007 season, 2010, in which you go to the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the third-placed driver that claims the title. So we're not going to close the door unless this is closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Upgrades on The Current Car?

Every team this season 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 major rules overhaul coming for the 2026 season.

In F1, it's usually the situation that if a constructor makes mistakes at the start of a new regulation period, it can take a long time to recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can continue for some time - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the regulations were modified.

McLaren began this season with the fastest car, after investing a lot of technical development 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 achieving on their 2025 season car versus 2026, it became an straightforward choice to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren stays competitive - team principal Stella stated he thought Lando Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Austin had he not finished following Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising 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 car's potential and we didn't execute a perfect race."

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

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Switch Teams?

Initially, it's uncertain the question has an entirely accurate premise. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing much better.

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

Lewis Hamilton has not beaten Leclerc very often at all this year, either in qualifying sessions or race.

He is now much closer than he previously. He is regularly setting times within a small fraction of a second of his teammate, but in qualifying it's 4-2 to Leclerc since the mid-season break.

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

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's hard to claim that on average Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

Each of Lewis Hamilton and Sainz have talked about how challenging it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Hamilton would not say even now that he was completely adjusted to the Ferrari car - and he is expecting the regulation changes next year will suit him; 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 Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Alonso, for instance, was performing well from the beginning 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 anticipate he wouldn't.

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

Before the cars run for the initial time in winter testing next season, nobody will know how the teams are performing next year.

The initial session, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors preferred to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the scrutiny of the press.

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time a certain indication of relative performance emerges.

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