McLaren stands firm: No MCL39 upgrades amid Verstappen surge

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has made clear that there will be no new upgrades coming for the MCL39 this season – even as Max Verstappen and Red Bull ramp up their late-year charge in the 2025 Formula 1 title fight.

The four-time world champion and his team are back to their imperious best, with the Dutchman
dominating qualifying, the Sprint, and Sunday’s race at the US Grand Prix, leaving McLaren to watch as the momentum continues to shift toward Milton Keynes.

Verstappen’s Austin masterclass has slashed the gap to championship leader Piastri to just 40 points, with Lando Norris 26 points ahead of the Red Bull charger.

Norris Had the Pace, But Not the Position

Despite this, Stella isn’t panicking. In fact, he believes Norris had the pace to take the fight to Verstappen, if not for one costly moment at the start.

“Well, first of all, I think in terms of the trend, today is a relatively reassuring race because I think without having to fight with Charles, which was certainly an entertaining fight itself, I think Lando had the pace to win the race today,” the McLaren chief explained.

“Obviously, he needed to gain the position on track, which is never easy with Max, and with a one-stop strategy, not necessarily we would have had many opportunities from a strategic point of view, but performance-wise, I think we are reassured that the pace was sufficient to fight for the victory.”

Stella also referenced a setup deficit that left Norris and Piastri’s engineers playing catch-up.

“Like I have explained to some of your colleagues as well, I think not having done the Sprint Race left us a little bit on the back foot from a set-up point of view,” he said.

“And in hindsight, we can see already that there was more performance that we could have extracted from the car.”

No New Developments for McLaren

While Red Bull’s recent upgrades have ironed out the RB21’s wrinkles, McLaren is taking a different tack. Stella was unequivocal about their development plans – or lack thereof –for the rest of 2025.

“When it comes to new upgrades, new parts, then this will not happen for the rest of the season,” he concluded.

With the Constructors’ title in the bag and 2026’s radical regulation overhaul on the horizon, McLaren is betting on fine-tuning their current package rather than chasing diminishing returns with last-minute upgrades.

This gamble might surprise pundits and fans alike, especially with Verstappen breathing down their necks. But Stella’s logic is clear: why pour resources into a car that’s already championship-caliber when next year’s reset looms large?

McLaren’s focus now shifts to extracting every ounce of performance from the MCL39 through setup tweaks and race-day execution.

If Norris and Piastri can keep their cool – and their positions at the start – McLaren might just fend off Verstappen’s Red Bull juggernaut without a single new bolt. Game on.

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