McLaren’s main target this weekend is to take three points more than Ferrari, enough to lock the constructors’ championship and underline a return to the form the team showed through much of the 2010s. Formula 1 heads into the weekend with the drivers’ championship already decided and the constructors’ title possibly settled on Sunday, even as the sport keeps moving on.
The constructors’ fight still matters for the teams. Prize money is at stake, and only 17 points separate Red Bull and McLaren in the battle for third, with about $10 million on the line.
One driver has climbed to second in the drivers’ championship, a position that looked impossible in the first third of the year when the team was nearly a second off the pace.
Max Verstappen was the beneficiary of Ferrari’s internal battle in Mexico. His win there was his third in four races.
McLaren went into this season knowing it had compromised its 2026 chances to get the championship over the line last year.