McLaren Brings More New Parts to Las Vegas, the Track It Still Has to Make Peace With

McLaren lost the constructors’ title in Brazil, but the team is not slowing down its development. Team principal Andrea Stella confirmed that another step will come in Las Vegas next week.

“These upgrades, first of all, they will be complemented by some more parts that come in Vegas, and they form the foundation for what will be next year’s car,” Stella said after the race at Interlagos. “So it’s encouraging for the trajectory of McLaren that we seem to be able to transform our development into performance on track.”

Brazil gave him reasons to talk like this. Lando Norris won the race, his third win of the season, and the most visible new part on his car was a new front wing, which McLaren describes as an item that is set to be on the launch car of 2027. With this wing the team wants a car that is easier to predict, because the drivers complained about this a lot during the year. Norris did not like the rear grip in slow corners. Oscar Piastri also said that the updates gave more speed, but the car was still hard to drive.

It was not an easy year for McLaren. At first the car was slow, but in Hungary the team brought a big package, and Norris won in Budapest and then, after the summer break, also in Zandvoort. “After the upgrades in Hungary, it was encouraging that we were in a position to win – we should have won Madrid, really – but after that, other people took upgrades and we lost this position,” Stella said. In Madrid Norris started from pole but a late, slow pit stop cost him the win. Then Red Bull came back strong, and McLaren fell to fourth among the constructors. Stella already warned at the end of October that the next parts were planned for Brazil and Las Vegas, and that in Mexico the car would be almost the same.

That Sunday Mercedes also became the constructors’ champion, and McLaren lost the title it had held for two years. Stella said that Toto Wolff and his people deserve praise for what they did this year. For McLaren the goal now is third place. The gap to Red Bull is 17 points, there are three races left, and Las Vegas will be important for this fight.

That will not be easy, because Las Vegas has been, in Stella’s words, probably “the one that we’ve been struggling the most”. “It’s a very different circuit layout, Vegas. Long straights,” he explained, and he added that McLaren also suffered at Monza and Baku when top speed decided, partly because of “our gear ratios that are not ideal”. Now the car is faster, though, and this is why Stella thinks that the team can “approach Vegas with some optimism”.

Last year Norris was second in Las Vegas and Piastri fourth, behind the winner Max Verstappen. After the race both cars were disqualified, because the skid blocks under the floor were worn too much. “And even last year that we had a good race, we made our life bad with the problem that we had with the skid wear,” Stella said. So this time he has a clear goal. “So we look forward to Vegas, have a good result there and finally being in peace with this venue.”

For Piastri the weekend is important as well. He has not been on the podium since Miami in May. At the end of October he said that the updates did what the team expected, but “clearly the teams around us are adding performance to the car”. In Brazil his pace was better again, so the new parts in Las Vegas may help him most of all.

The Las Vegas Grand Prix runs from November 19 to 21, and the race is on Saturday night. McLaren will have to come back there for many years, because in June F1 extended the contract with the race until 2037. After Las Vegas only Qatar and Abu Dhabi are left, so these are the last chances to test new parts in a race before the winter. Every part that works on the Strip will also tell the engineers something about next year.