Today's team representatives press conference with Oliver Oakes, Zak Brown and Laurent Mekies.

Q: Now, Zak, can we start with you? Because there's a huge couple of months for the team ahead. Just give us a clue as to the atmosphere inside McLaren at the moment?
Zak Brown: Well, the atmosphere is great, as you can imagine. But we have six races to go, three Sprints, a lot of racing left to go. And we know how quickly this sport can change. The top four teams at the moment, there's not much between them. So we need to keep doing what we have been doing all year to get us to where we are here, as opposed to doing anything differently. Excited for the weekend. Great venue. They've retarmacked a decent amount of it. And yeah, we'll see. You know, having one practice session, you kind of get down to business pretty quickly. And I think we'll start to get an indication in Sprint qualifying what things look like.

Q: So if I were to say to you, what is the message you've given the team? It's keep doing what you're doing.
ZB: Keep doing what you're doing. It's working. So I think there's no reason to change what got us to where we are than to do anything different than what we've been doing and keep our head down because we recognise how quickly the sport can change.

Q: And what about Lando? How's he dealing with the increased pressure on him now?
ZB: Good. Golfing when he has a day off. Excited to go racing. I think the second break that we had, I think we're all anxious to get back to the racetrack and continue with the racing programme.

Q: And what about your chances in the two championships? You're 41 points ahead in the Constructors', Lando's 52 behind in the Drivers'. What is your assessment of McLaren's chances of getting those two across the line?
ZB: Well, they're different propositions. We're obviously leading in the Constructors', so we need to continue to do so. Red Bull is not far behind, and I think Ferrari, judging from this morning, might be the quickest team. So I think we're worried about both of them. And then on the Drivers' Championship, Max is an awesome racing driver. So his bad days tend to be a second or a third place. And we're going to need Lando to win a lot of races and Max to have an unusual bad day, worse than a second or third. Because I think if Lando goes and wins everything and Max finishes second and all, still don't think you get the job done. So that one's going to be a little bit tougher, but a lot of racing to go. And so we just need to keep doing what we can to support him and hope that we can get one, if not both.

Q: Let's fast forward two months. Win or lose, how will you reflect on 2024?
ZB: An awesome season. You know, we've won five races, 14, 15 podiums in a row. So regardless of the outcome, because this is a difficult sport and we have awesome competitors, I think regardless of where we finish in either or both championships, you've got to say all the men and women at McLaren have done an outstanding job to put five race wins in the amount of podiums that we've had for both drivers together. So we'll definitely look back on this year proud of what we've accomplished.

Q: Final one from me, Zak. A lot has been written and said about ride heights over the last 24 hours in particular. Can we just get your reaction to what is going on with regard to ride heights and your reaction to the FIA's reaction to what's going on?
ZB: Yeah, I mean, typically being able to run a car lower is a competitive advantage. It makes the car quicker, most of the time. The FIA, who I think have done a very good job of identifying an element from a single race team, from what we can see, from having looked at all the open source components, it's the only team that has the ability to adjust the ride height from inside the cockpit. Whether they have or haven't, I have no idea, but having the ability to do it raises questions. It's very clear in the regulations and it's a material breach that if you modify your race car, anything that you didn't get permission on or driver comfort is very much against regulations. So they've decided from what I've read, to put a seal on it. And at the same time, I've heard from the team that you can't adjust it when the car is fully race prepped. The car is not always fully race-prepped in Parc Fermé and Sunday morning. So I think that needs to be unpicked. And why do you need to put a seal on something that you can't get to in Parc Fermé or post-Parc Fermé conditions. So I still have questions that I need to better understand.

Q: Zak, thanks for that. I'm sure there'll be more questions for you in just a moment. Thank you. Olly, let's come to you now. Welcome to your first FIA press conference, first of all. Now, you've been team principal at Alpine for, what is it, just a couple of months now. How are you settling in?
Oliver Oakes: I was thinking how long it's been, yeah. A couple of weeks, I think, five. No, maybe more, five, eight weeks. I've settled in very well. Everyone's been very welcoming. Obviously, there wasn't much rest, straight in after the shutdown, straight into these races, but that's been really good.

Q: You say everyone's been very welcoming in the team. What about the other team principals?
OO: They've all been pretty nice, yeah. Most of them, yeah, so far.

Q: Let's talk about on-track stuff now. On the performance side, it's been a tricky few races for the team. No points since Zandvoort. You're running some upgrades on Pierre's car here. So what was he saying about them in FP1?
OO: Yeah, so I think we had definitely a tricky couple of races. I think particularly pre-shutdown, in Spa and Zandvoort, we were there mixing it for the tail end of the points. I think the last few races have been tough on the team, quite humbling, but I think this weekend we're positive. We've brought a very big upgrade. We have to see how it performs on track. Pierre seemed happy. I'd never say completely happy. Drivers are always on our case for many things, but it looks positive, yeah.

Q: And looking further ahead, what goals have you set the team over these last six races?
OO: Yeah, I mean, I think at the end of the day, coming in new, it's more just genuinely seeing how everyone performs together. I think the team had a tough start to the season. I think they've really rallied around that to work hard, to bring some performance for these last few races of the year. And I think just very humble, really, just seeing how we can progress between now and the beginning of next year.

Q: And are there any Constructors' Championships goals? I mean, you're P9 at the moment, but very close to Williams.
OO: I think that battle with us and Williams is definitely going to keep bubbling away till the end of the year. Obviously, you know, full credit to them, they're tough competitors as well. They've had a quick car the last few races. So I think that's definitely their face every day. But at the end of the day, we also know it's not just them we want to beat. We need to be better as a team. So, yeah, there are a lot of goals.

Q: And with the upcoming changes on the power unit side of things, it's been a baptism of fire for you, but when can we expect news as to which direction you're going to go for 2026?
OO: Yeah, I think it's been slightly warm since I arrived. I think at the end of the day, at group level, we've made it clear that we want to have the best engine in the car, and I think that's a process that's ongoing. We're looking at options, and I think when we have news, we'll let you know.

Q: Can you give us a timeframe on that?
OO: Before the end of the year. Is that all right?

Q: Ollie, thanks for that. I'm sure there'll be more questions for you in a minute. Laurent, coming to you now. So Liam's back in the car here. How's he settled in during FP1? He looked close to Yuki.
Laurent Mekies: Look, yeah, he did a very good job. He has been waiting for that moment for a very long time, so he was all smiling this morning, and I think he was sitting in the car 20 minutes before the session started. So he was certainly very keen. Look, he did all the sessions in a very smooth way. We had this very refreshing, typical day one comments from drivers when they complained about too much grip. It normally doesn't last very long, but he was on the right pace straight away, quite close to Yuki. It's a difficult track, he has never driven here, so it's the right way to put the first foot into the weekend.

Q: And how much more complicated is his job this weekend, it being a Sprint?
LM: You know, I think the Sprint in isolation does make the weekend very, very complicated for a first race, for a young driver, if I can call him a young driver. I think what is fortunately for him mitigating these circumstances is that we have a PU penalty to take with him. So effectively, the level of pressure for qualifying will go down. So really, what it means for us and for him is that he can use the whole weekend to settle in, to build up the confidence. We know it's going to be extremely difficult to score points if you start from the back of the grid on Sunday. And therefore, you can really use the weekend to get the right reasons with these engineers in the car, get the confidence, and hopefully hit the ground running in Mexico.

Q: So Sunday's going to be difficult, but what goals have you set him over these six races? What's he got to do to get that second seat at VCARB in 2025?
LM: You know, the speed is there for him. The speed is there, but we believe, I'm sure as my colleagues, we believe in drivers developing and improving not only their skills outside of the race, of the car, but also in the car, they're pure speed. So all he needs to do is stay calm in the car, develop his skills, get the speed to come together with his confidence race after race. And if we see that, it means that Yuki and him will be pushing each other very, very hard. And that's exactly what we want to see. That's exactly what we need for the future.