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

McLaren are well aware of the challenge they face with Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the championship battle this season, but they don't believe to change their method to running the team.

They will continue to provide both drivers the best chance they can and run the team on a basis of fairness and balance.

"This is the way we plan racing. This is the way in which we tackle racing, and we aim to stay equitable, and we intend to maintain equal treatment to our drivers."

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

And he lost the title as engineer to Alonso in the 2010 season, when Ferrari made errors in their strategy at the last Grand Prix of the championship and allowed Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull to sneak the championship from under their noses.

Andrea Stella stated following the race in Austin: "We view the remaining five Grands Prix as chances to extend the lead on Verstappen. And when it involves having to make a call as to a driver, this will exclusively be led by mathematics."

"We rely on the past experience. I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you reach the final Grand Prix and it's in fact the third-placed driver that wins the championship. So we're not going to make decisions unless this is closed by the calculations."

What Prompted McLaren to Cease Upgrades on The Current Car?

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

In F1, it's usually the case that if a constructor gets it wrong at the start of a new rules cycle, it can take a long time to catch up. And if they get it right, that benefit can last for a while - look at the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the last time the regulations were modified.

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

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were experiencing diminishing returns. So when evaluating the bang for buck they were achieving on their 2025 car compared to 2026, it became an easy choice to redirect attention to the following season.

Red Bull have closed the gap since introducing their updated floor and front wing at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren car remains competitive - team principal Stella stated he believed Lando Norris had the pace to compete for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Leclerc.

"We must keep optimising the car performance and keep executing good race weekends. And from this perspective, if you consider a Grand Prix like Baku, we failed to optimize the performance and we didn't deliver a flawless race."

"Therefore we have a significant opportunity, and the result of this season and the drivers' championship is in our hands. It's not placed in someone else's hands."

Driver Transfers: How Difficult Is It to Change Constructors?

Initially, I'm not sure the inquiry has an entirely accurate basis. It's correct that both Lewis Hamilton and Sainz had somewhat sticky first halves of the season, in different ways, and that they are now faring significantly improved.

Carlos Sainz and Albon do now look quite balanced. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "match" of Leclerc - or not regularly, at least.

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

He is currently much closer than he previously. He is consistently setting times within a small fraction of a second of Leclerc, but in qualifying it's four-two to Charles Leclerc since the mid-season break.

This last weekend in Texas, on one of Hamilton's favourite circuits, he was a full second slower than Leclerc when the Monaco driver completed his tire change, and lost 13 seconds over the remaining portion of the Grand Prix.

In hindsight, Leclerc was on the optimal strategy. Regardless, over the season, and even now, it's hard to argue that on balance Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari racer this season.

Both Hamilton and Sainz have discussed how difficult it is to switch teams, and we have to take them at their word.

Lewis Hamilton would not say even now that he was fully adapted to the Ferrari car - and he is hoping the new rules next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these venturi cars.

There is a lot for a driver to understand and adapt to when they switch teams, as Hamilton has explained repeatedly this season. But not every driver faces difficulties in this manner.

Fernando Alonso, for example, was on it from the start of the 2023 when he transferred to the Aston Martin team. And would Max Verstappen struggle if he switched teams? I suspect most in Formula 1 would anticipate he wouldn't.

How Soon Can We Determine Next Year's Team Performance?

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

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the constructors wanted to get their heads around their first running of the new engines without the prying eyes of the media.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on February 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 not until the first race that the complete and precise situation will become clear.