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

McLaren are fully conscious of the difficulty they face with Verstappen and the Red Bull team in the drivers' championship this season, but they see no reason to change their strategy to managing the team.

They will continue to provide both drivers the optimal opportunity they can and run the team on a basis of equity and equanimity.

"This represents the manner we intend racing. This is the philosophy in which we tackle racing, and we want to stay fair, and we want to apply equality to our drivers."

Team principal Stella is a veteran of numerous title battles. He claimed the title as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season when the Ferrari racer recovered 17 points under the previous points system in two races to secure the championship, while the McLaren team imploded.

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

Stella stated after the race in Texas: "We look at the remaining five Grands Prix as opportunities to increase the gap on Verstappen. And when it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be determined by mathematics."

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

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

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

In F1, it's typically the case that if a constructor 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 the Red Bull team in 2022 and 2023, the most recent occasion the rules changed.

The McLaren team started this season with the best car, after putting a lot of innovation into their 2025 design.

They did continue to improve it for a period, but were finding diminishing returns. So when evaluating the value for money they were achieving on their 2025 car versus 2026, it became an easy choice to switch focus to next year.

Red Bull have caught up since introducing their updated floor and nose section at the Monza Grand Prix, but the McLaren remains competitive - team principal Stella said he believed Lando Norris had the speed to challenge for the win in Texas had he not ended up behind Charles Leclerc.

"We must keep maximising the performance and continue 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 flawless race."

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

Team Changes: How Challenging Is It to Switch Teams?

First of all, I'm not sure the question has an completely accurate premise. It's correct that each of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had somewhat difficult opening phases of the season, in varying manners, and that they are currently performing much better.

Sainz and Albon currently appear very even. However, it's less certain that, in Lewis Hamilton's case, he is yet the "equal" of Charles Leclerc - or not regularly, anyway.

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

He is now much closer than he was. He is regularly qualifying within a few hundredths 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 favourite tracks, he was a second behind Leclerc when the Monegasque made his pit stop, and lost 13 seconds over the rest of the race.

In hindsight, Charles Leclerc was on the best strategy. Nevertheless, over the championship, and even now, it's hard to claim that on balance Leclerc has not been the superior Ferrari driver this year.

Both Hamilton and Carlos Sainz have talked about 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 completely adjusted to Ferrari - and he is hoping the regulation changes next season will benefit his driving style; he has never really enjoyed these ground-effect vehicles.

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

Alonso, for example, was on it from the beginning of the 2023 season when he moved to Aston Martin. And would Verstappen struggle if he changed constructors? I believe most in F1 would expect not.

When Will We Know Next Year's Team Performance?

Before the F1 cars are driven for the first time in pre-season testing next season, no-one will know how the teams are looking in the upcoming season.

The first test, in Barcelona on 26-30 January, is behind closed doors because the teams preferred to understand their initial track time of the new engines without the prying eyes of the press.

So the pair of sessions in Bahrain on 11-13 and February 18-20 will be the first time some kind of indication of relative performance emerges.

But, as always, it's not until the first race that the true and accurate situation will emerge.