McLaren brings new wings and floor parts to São Paulo, with 2027 in mind
McLaren will fit new front and rear wings and small floor parts to the MCL40 for the São Paulo Grand Prix. Aerodynamics chief Peter Prodromou says the new front wing concept is expected to carry over to the 2027 car.
A package with a longer horizon
McLaren is bringing an upgrade package to Interlagos that is meant to pay off beyond this weekend. Autosport and RacingNews365 both report that the team will run new front and rear wings plus small floor components on the MCL40 at the São Paulo Grand Prix on 8 November, and that the new front wing concept is expected to feed into next year's car.
What McLaren said
Peter Prodromou, McLaren's chief technical officer for aerodynamics, said the aim is to "make up ground, improve our performance over the remaining races". He described São Paulo as a fairly representative track, which makes it a useful place to judge the parts. He added that the team expects the front wing concept to be part of the launch specification of its 2027 car, which RacingNews365 names as the MCL41.
Lando Norris, who finished fifth in Mexico City, 12 seconds behind winner Max Verstappen, told Autosport that McLaren still struggles at some circuits, naming Baku as an example. He said Mexico suited the car and that he does not want to rely on hope and luck.
Where McLaren stands
The upgrade comes as the gap in the constructors' standings has swung. According to RacingNews365, Red Bull moved into third place with 382 points after the Mexico City race, while McLaren has 365, a difference of 17 points. In Mexico, McLaren's only points came from Norris, because Oscar Piastri was given a 10-second penalty for a collision with Arvid Lindblad and dropped out of the top ten.
Autosport says McLaren scored 59 points over the last five rounds while Red Bull collected 152, and that McLaren had the fourth-quickest car in the last four qualifying sessions, on average 0.511 seconds from pole.
By the numbers
Our race data shows how far the season has moved. Norris won in Budapest and again at Zandvoort in August. Since then McLaren's best result is his third place in Madrid, and the team has not won since. Both cars finished in the top ten at Monza, Kuala Lumpur, Marina Bay and Austin, while Baku brought no points for either driver.
What next
The São Paulo weekend starts with first practice on Friday, which will be the first chance to see whether the new parts close the gap to Red Bull and Mercedes. Beyond that, McLaren has only a handful of races left to collect data before its 2027 car takes shape.
