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

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

They will persist to provide their two drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This represents the way we intend competing. This is the method in which we approach racing, and we want to stay equitable, and we intend to apply equality to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a seasoned expert of many title battles. He won the championship as race engineer to Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered seventeen points under the old scoring system in two races to win the championship, while McLaren collapsed.

And he lost the title as engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari messed up their strategy at the final race of the championship and allowed Vettel and the Red Bull team to snatch the championship from their grasp.

Andrea Stella said after the race in Texas: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a decision as to a driver, this will only be led by the numbers."

"We lean on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you go to the last race and it's in fact the [driver in] third [place] that wins the title. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on This Year's Car?

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

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 recover. And if they succeed, that benefit can last for a while - look at Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

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

They did continue to develop it for a while, but were finding diminishing returns. So when looking at the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to the 2026 car, it became an straightforward decision to switch focus to next year.

The Red Bull team have caught up since bringing their updated floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he thought Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the victory in Texas had he not ended up following Charles Leclerc.

"We just have to keep optimising the car performance and keep delivering strong weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the car's potential and we didn't deliver a perfect 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 in another team's control."

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the question has an completely correct basis. It's true that both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly sticky opening phases of the championship, in varying manners, and that they are now performing significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Albon currently look very even. However, it's not so clear that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is currently much closer than he was. He is consistently qualifying within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying battles it's 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

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

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best race strategy. Regardless, over the championship, and even now, it's difficult to argue that on average Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the better Ferrari racer this season.

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

Lewis Hamilton would not say even currently that he was fully adapted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next year will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a great deal for a racing driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this year. But not all struggle in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he moved to the Aston Martin team. And would Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Competitive Order?

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

The initial session, in Catalunya on 26-30 January, is private because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their initial track time of the power unit changes without the scrutiny of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Sakhir on February 11-13 and 18-20 February will be the first time a certain indication of comparative speed becomes apparent.

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