McLaren has said it will not bring any more upgrades to its 2025 car for the rest of the Formula 1 season. The team will rely on what they already have to help Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris try to stay ahead of Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship.

Even so, McLaren found some hope in Norris’ performance at the US Grand Prix in Austin. Verstappen won the race on Sunday, his third win in four races, and also took maximum points in Saturday’s sprint race, where both Piastri and Norris were taken out. These results have brought Verstappen back into the title fight. He is now 40 points behind Piastri, while Norris is 14 points behind his Australian teammate.

Red Bull’s car, the RB21, is now seen as the fastest in Formula 1. The team has improved it a lot, giving Verstappen a real chance in the championship. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko said the team still has an upgrade ready. “We still have something up our sleeve. I don’t know exactly when it will come,” he said, quoted by Motorsport Week.

McLaren, however, will not be adding anything new. Team boss Andrea Stella said: “When it comes to new upgrades, new parts, then this will not happen for the rest of the season.”

Still, Stella saw good signs at the US Grand Prix. While Piastri struggled with confidence and finished fifth, Norris showed strong race pace, keeping close to Verstappen at the front. “In terms of the trend, today is a relatively reassuring race,” Stella said, quoted by Motorsport.com. “I think without having to fight with Charles [Leclerc], Lando had the pace to win the race today.”

Norris’ chance of winning was affected at the start when he fell behind Leclerc on a track where overtaking is hard. McLaren also had no data from the sprint race because both drivers were taken out, which made it harder to set up the car for qualifying and the race. Stella admitted: “Not having done the sprint race left us a little bit on the back foot from a setup point of view. In hindsight, we can see already there was more performance that we could have extracted from the car.”

Red Bull is in good form and confident. Marko said: “There’s a great atmosphere in the team right now. You can see that McLaren no longer has that ease. Piastri also struggled a bit more today. I hope it stays that way.” He also said that rain could help Verstappen in upcoming races, like the Mexican Grand Prix. “That means it’s absolute Verstappen time!” he added.

With just five weekends left, McLaren must rely on their current car, while Red Bull continues to improve. The championship fight looks set to be exciting until the very end.