McLaren has revealed it will add to the developments it brought to the United States Grand Prix with more updates to its 2024 Formula 1 car over “the next two races”.
The Woking-based squad is bidding to protect a 40-point advantage over Red Bull in the next five rounds to secure a first Constructors’ Championship win since 1998.
McLaren’s success this season has derived from avoiding the setbacks that its rivals have experienced with a cautious approach to bolting on upgrades to its MCL38.
The autumn break provided the teams with a chance to introduce more new parts at the Circuit of the Americas, which helped McLaren to again extend its advantage.
But although it is well-positioned to beat Red Bull to the crown, McLaren boss Andrea Stella has denied that it could withhold updates in the pipeline until next season.
Instead, McLaren will aim to boost Lando Norris’ dwindling title prospects with more tweaks poised to come to its 2024 challenger at the rounds in Mexico and Brazil.
“I think the next circuit should be a little bit more suitable to the characteristics of our car,” Stella told media including Motorsport Week.
“We also have to keep developing the car. Like here, we took some developments at the front of the car, but they were nothing too large in terms of potential lap time impact.
“We have a couple more things that are coming in the next two races. We will see if we are in [a] condition to alter the competitiveness of the car.”
McLaren not ‘in condition’ to bring new floor
McLaren divulged earlier in the Austin weekend that it had elected not to sample a new floor as it wanted to ensure that other components were working as expected.
READ MORE: McLaren details decision to not bring updated F1 floor to US GP
But with the side struggling somewhat compared to Ferrari and Red Bull, Stella was questioned on whether McLaren should have been more aggressive with updates.
“If we were in condition to release them and produce them in time to have them in Austin, we would have brought them to Austin,” the Italian retorted.
“I think the time of new parts and upgrades landing trackside is the natural time of designing, finalising and then producing the new parts.
“I’ve said before already, though, that we wanted to make sure that what we bring trackside is well-behaved.
“And we are quite encouraged, and I have to say well done once again to our aerodynamic team, that the parts we took here, they worked as expected.”
READ MORE: Lando Norris argues US GP shows F1 rivals ‘closer than people think’ to McLaren
