McLaren aims its next upgrades at Brazil and Las Vegas

McLaren is not treating Mexico City as an upgrade weekend. Team principal Andrea Stella said the next parts are aimed at Brazil and Las Vegas, with little new hardware for the race in between.

"Mexico there won't be very much, but Brazil and Vegas there will be some upgrades," Stella said, in comments reported by PlanetF1 and Sky Sports. He added that he hopes the remaining parts put the team in the fight for podiums and, later, closer to a win fight. He did not promise an immediate jump. Both outlets quote him saying upgrades are still in the pipeline, and that the team can bring them across Brazil and Las Vegas.

What the team says is on the car this week

McLaren's own Mexico City preview, published Wednesday at 10:00 UTC, says that after changes to the front and rear corners of the MCL40 in Austin, the team will hone those updates in Mexico City "alongside a small selection of parts."

Sky Sports goes a step further in its account of a team release: the car "will remain essentially unchanged" this weekend, apart from that small selection of parts, and further developments are lined up for the remaining rounds, "starting from the race in Sao Paulo."

Those are the team's words about its own timetable. They are not a lap-time estimate.

What Austin showed

In Austin, Lando Norris finished fifth and Oscar Piastri seventh, McLaren's preview says. That matches the classification in our United States Grand Prix report, drawn from the race result, which lists Norris on 10 points for fifth and Piastri on 6 for seventh.

Norris has been blunt about the car. After qualifying eighth in Austin, he called the MCL40 "easily the hardest car I've ever driven in my life," Sky Sports reported. He also told Sky that the team lost almost three tenths a lap in slow corners in Austin, and that rear grip in those corners has been the weakness.

Piastri's point is related, and it is his. He told PlanetF1 and other reporters that recent upgrades are doing what the team expected, but that "none of these upgrades are really making the car easier to drive." PlanetF1 also reports that McLaren has gone four rounds without a podium, and that Piastri's last podium was Miami in May. Those are PlanetF1's counts, not a figure published by the team.

The points McLaren is trying to hold

McLaren's preview says Norris is sixth on 211 points, 22 behind fifth, with Piastri on 144. Those totals match the standings after Austin. On that table Charles Leclerc is fifth on 233, and 233 minus 211 is 22.

The same preview says McLaren and Red Bull are level on points, with the fight for third in the constructors' championship still open. Our standings story has both teams on 355, with Red Bull listed third and McLaren fourth on the team standings.

Brazil, Las Vegas, and a reserve in first practice

The next upgrades Stella named are two races US fans can already put on a clock. The São Paulo Grand Prix runs November 6 to 8, with the race at noon Eastern on Sunday, November 8. The Las Vegas Grand Prix is the week of November 20 to 22.

McLaren's preview also says reserve Leonardo Fornaroli will drive in first practice in Mexico City, his third such session of the season, with another run planned in São Paulo. That outing was not in the six-car list we published while several teams were still naming their drivers. The FP1 shake-up story has the other names.