New rear wing for McLaren drivers and latest floor for Piastri in Brazil · RaceFans

McLaren are the only championship-contending team to have brought any updates for their car to this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

The team has brought updates to all three events held in successive weekends. They introduced a combination of new suspension parts and revised bodywork in Austin, then brought a new floor for Lando Norris’ car last weekend.

In Brazil both drivers will benefit from a revised rear wing designed to better suit the demands of the Interlagos track. Oscar Piastri will join Norris in using the latest floor specification.

McLaren’s rear wing became a focus of interest following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The edges of its DRS flap deformed visibly at high speed when shut, prompting claims the team had created a ‘mini DRS’ effect.

After the FIA announced it was looking into the behaviour of teams’ rear wings in Baku, McLaren made changes to its design. Other teams are also known to have altered their wings.

According to McLaren’s submission to the FIA, the new rear wing and beam wing they will use in Brazil is specific to the demands of the Interlagos track, which features two long acceleration zones broken up by a combination of low-to-medium speed corners.

They said the new upper flap “increases overall wing efficiency over the existing medium downforce wing.” They have two new options of lower beam wing for high downforce and low downforce beam wing to suit the drivers’ set-up preferences.

Some doubt hangs over the conditions drivers will face on the track this weekend as it has been fully resurfaced since last year’s race. As this is a sprint race weekend, McLaren will only have an hour of practice to evaluate their latest changes, but will be able to alter their set-up between tomorrow’s sprint race and qualifying for the grand prix.

The only other team to have brought upgrades to Interlagos is Sauber. They have changed the outboard pick-up points on their front suspension to give them more set-up options and introduced a new ‘tandem’ beam wing.

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