Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren add Austin upgrades

Hamilton said Ferrari’s gain was “less than a tenth,” or roughly half a tenth, and suggested it would not be enough on its own to close the gap to McLaren, Mercedes or Red Bull. His comments underline the economic and sporting reality of modern F1: after months of wind-tunnel work and costly design iterations, the biggest teams are chasing marginal performance gains rather than step-change improvements.

McLaren, the reigning world champions, has also added a new front and rear corner plus modified diffuser geometry as it tries to defend its lead in the development battle. Red Bull is bringing a new front wing and a new front corner, with Max Verstappen having won the last two races in dominant fashion and the team looking to extend that momentum.

Mercedes is not introducing new bodywork this weekend, though both Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell are running the latest-spec W17 after a comparison test in Singapore. Racing Bulls, Alpine, Audi and Cadillac are also listed with upgrades, showing how broad the late-season development spend remains across the grid.

For investors and teams, the message is that the value of incremental upgrades is rising as the title fight tightens and the performance spread compresses. That keeps pressure on engineering budgets, race execution and sponsorship visibility heading into race day, with Austin now a real test of whether Ferrari’s latest package can move the team off the margins Hamilton described.