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Must McLaren Face the Truth of F1 - That to Win, You Can't Always Play Fair?

McLaren are well aware of the challenge they encounter with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they see no reason to alter their method to managing the team.

They will continue to give both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a foundation of equity and balance.

"This represents the approach we plan competing. This remains the philosophy in which we approach racing, and we aim to stay equitable, and we intend to maintain equality to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He won 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 title, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Andrea Stella said after the race in Austin: "We view the next five races as chances to increase 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 lean on the experience. I can recall at least 2007, the 2010 season, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's actually the [driver in] third [place] that claims the championship. So we're not going to close the door unless this is determined by mathematics."

What Prompted McLaren to Stop Development on This Year's Car?

All teams this season have had to confront the conundrum of for how long to concentrate on their 2025 car while also making sure they are as ready as they can be for the major regulation change coming for the 2026 season.

In Formula 1, it's typically the case that if a team makes mistakes at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a considerable period to recover. And if they succeed, that advantage can last for a while - consider Red Bull in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules were modified.

McLaren began this year with the best car, after investing a lot of technical development into their 2025 season design.

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

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their new floor and nose section at the Italian Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team boss Andrea Stella said he believed Norris had the speed to compete for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the car performance and continue delivering good weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a race like Baku, we didn't maximise the performance and we didn't execute a flawless performance."

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

Driver Transfers: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an completely correct basis. It's true that both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had slightly difficult opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are now faring much better.

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon currently look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is currently the "equal" of Leclerc - or not consistently, anyway.

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

He is currently 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 4-2 to Charles Leclerc since the summer break.

This previous weekend in Austin, on one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite tracks, he was a full second slower than 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 optimal race strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even currently, it's difficult to claim that on balance Charles Leclerc has hasn't been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

Each of Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to change constructors, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not claim even currently that he was fully adapted 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 driver to get their head around when they switch teams, as Lewis Hamilton has described many times this season. But not every driver struggle in this way.

Fernando Alonso, for instance, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Max Verstappen face challenges if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

When Will We Know The Coming Season's Team Performance?

Until the cars run for the initial time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will understand 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 get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the two tests in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of indication of comparative speed emerges.

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