Mexico City GP: McLaren plan further upgrades after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri's struggles in Austin
McLaren have confirmed they will continue to upgrade their car in the closing stages of the 2026 Formula 1 season; most teams have stopped development on this year's car to focus on 2027; watch every session of the Mexico City GP from this Friday, live on Sky Sports F1
Wednesday 28 October 2026 12:00, UK
McLaren plan to bring more upgrades to the car in the remaining rounds of the 2026 Formula 1 season after struggling to compete at the front in recent races.
Since Lando Norris missed out on victory in Madrid last month, McLaren have failed to finish on the podium in the last four races, despite bringing new parts to the car in that period.
After qualifying eighth at last weekend's United States Grand Prix, Norris described the MCL40 as "easily the hardest car I've ever driven in my life".
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Norris ran in second place late on in the race by adopting an alternative one-stop strategy but was overtaken late on by Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton as he dropped to fifth, while Oscar Piastri finished seventh.
"There will be some more stuff coming," said team principal Andrea Stella on McLaren's upgrade plans, given most teams are now focusing on designing their 2027 cars.
"I think ultimately we will only be able to do so across Brazil and Vegas. So, Mexico there won't be very much, but Brazil and Vegas there will be some upgrades.
"Hopefully this will help us to be consistently in the fight for podiums and hopefully start to lean on the level of competitiveness that is required to fight for the victory. So, there's a few upgrades that are still in the pipeline."
McLaren confirmed in their press release ahead of this weekend's Mexico City Grand Prix that the team "remains committed to learning, developing and extracting the maximum from the MCL40 at every opportunity".
"After the successful introduction of changes to the front and rear corners of the MCL40 in Austin, the car will remain essentially unchanged going into this weekend's race," they added.
"This will therefore only see a small selection of parts delivered to track in Mexico City through the team's development pathway with further developments in the pipeline for the remaining rounds of the 2026 season, starting from the race in Sao Paulo."
Norris points to qualifying as a weakness
Norris has claimed three pole positions this year in Budapest, Zandvoort and Madrid, but his biggest margin to second place in those qualifying sessions was 0.102s.
The car appears to have been on a knife edge throughout the season, which Piastri has struggled more with, and Norris says the slow-speed corners have also been an issue for the team.
"There's been a lot of races we have shone and done a very good job. Qualifyings we have struggled," Norris told Sky Sports F1.
"We roughly know where we need to improve the car. I think in Austin it was clear the slow-speed corners we lost almost three tenths a lap, every single lap. That's a chunky bit of lap time to lose so consistently.
"We need to improve in certain areas. If we can do that, I'm very confident we can have some good results but it seems to be a challenging area for us to improve as much as we like.
"We will keep working hard. The team are doing a very good job and we will keep trying to pick away."
Sky Sports F1's live Mexico City GP schedule
Thursday October 29
8pm: Drivers' Press Conference
11pm: Paddock Uncut
Friday October 30
6pm: Mexico City Grand Prix Practice One (session starts at 6.30pm)*
8pm: The F1 Show
9pm: Team Bosses' Press Conference
9.30pm: Mexico City Grand Prix Practice Two (session starts at 10pm)*
Saturday October 31
5.15pm: Mexico City Grand Prix Practice Three (session starts at 6.30pm)
8pm: Mexico City Grand Prix Qualifying build-up
9pm: MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING
11pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
Sunday November 1
5pm: F1 Academy Race 3
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Mexico City GP build-up
8pm: THE MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX*
10pm: Chequered Flag: Mexico City GP reaction
11pm: Ted's Notebook
*also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 next heads south for the second leg of The Americas triple-header with the Mexico City Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime
