McLaren taking nothing for granted with constructors' championship in sight

McLaren are on the verge of winning the team's first Formula One constructors' championship since 1998 but CEO Zak Brown said on Thursday he is keeping the champagne on ice knowing full well how quickly fortunes can change in the sport.

McLaren lead the standing with 593 points, 36 ahead of Ferrari with defending champions Red Bull still in the running with 544 points ahead of Saturday's Las Vegas Grand Prix.

"I feel great with where we are," Brown said at an event promoting the British team's partnership with Mastercard.

"But it's high stress. A 36-point lead can evaporate in one race weekend when you've got Ferrari, who could easily finish first and second, which can happen in a street race as we saw in Brazil.

"For those people who have come up to me with a foregone conclusion that we've already won the championship, I kind of want to punch them in the nose."

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said the construtors' championship was the priority after Lando Norris finished sixth in Brazil earlier this month, putting Red Bull's Max Verstappen on the brink of a fourth successive drivers' crown.

Brown said staying consistent will be key to locking up the title.

"A lot of people have asked what we are doing differently now," he said.

"We don't want to do anything differently. We want to do exactly what got us to where we are. Take it one session at a time, feet on the ground.

"The minute you think you've done it before you're in the end zone is a big mistake to make.

"So I feel good about where we are but we're very focused and we're not going to celebrate until hopefully we've earned the right to celebrate."

F1 teams adjust cars after FIA skid block clampdown

Meanwhile, Ferrari and Mercedes confirmed adjustments to their Formula One cars on Thursday after the governing FIA closed a loophole that allowed a lower ride height while avoiding excessive wear of the floor plank.

Cars have a wooden plank in the floor which has to be a mandatory thickness but teams can use metal skid blocks in certain areas to add protection when the bottom of the car hits the ground.

The latest technical directive, issued after this month's Brazilian Grand Prix according to media reports, concerned satellite skids that were allowed without any specified thickness.

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc were both disqualified from second and fifth respectively for excessive skid block wear in last year's U.S. Grand Prix in Austin.

"We had to make a change but we have also the confirmation before this (from the FIA) that the plank was legal," Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur told reporters after first practice for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

"I think it was the right attitude for us not to fight because I want to stay focused on the championship and not on this kind of discussion," added the Frenchman, whose team are battling McLaren and Red Bull for the constructors' title.

"But the approach was strange."

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said his team had also changed "the way we run the floor".

Alpine principal Oliver Oakes confirmed his team had made "a little change".