Part 1: Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris and Franco Colapinto.

Lando, let's start with you. 150 races not out. Time flies. Give us a highlight and a lowlight to start the press conference of the last seven years of your life.
Lando Norris: Yeah. It's crazy. It's a big number, matching DC [David Coulthard] for amount of races with McLaren as well. So it's not just races in Formula 1 - it's 150 with McLaren. So Qatar will be 151. So the most... I don't know what the word would be... most "racing-est" driver for McLaren - whatever it is. So that's cool. That's something I'm pretty proud of. It's quite an achievement. But yeah, 150 in F1 - like, this is my dream, you know? It's been my dream since I was a kid, so to get that far, to get one is pretty incredible, but 150... Time certainly flies. But I still remember Australia 2019, I still remember being on the grid there and the lights coming on and everything. So it doesn't feel that long ago. Lowlight is tough to say. There are always tough moments in everyone's career. Don't know what that would be, but certainly the last couple years for us as a team... Silverstone this year is probably my proudest achievement in terms of winning at home. It's the one race in my career that I would want to win - at home, in Silverstone. So I would pick Silverstone as the proudest moment. My parents down there, the team, my fans, the grandstand - that was a moment that really brought me back to my childhood but also made me feel on top of the world for a few minutes. So that was certainly the best.

So if getting to Formula 1 was your childhood dream, it must be a dream to be leading the world championship by 24 points with three races to go. Just how much are you enjoying the moment?
LN: I certainly am. Everyone knows my approach is still just one race at a time, and I'll treat it like that until the very end. I'm enjoying the places I'm going, I'm enjoying the people I'm doing it with. I'm certainly enjoying every session, going out and obviously always trying to win. It's always sweeter when you end up on the podium or you can win the race. It's always a better feeling because that's what we all want. So it's been a good few races recently. And it is hard at times when you're fighting and you're in the position that we're in at the moment as a team, between Oscar and myself, to sometimes step back and realise what you're doing. You're so just in the moment, in the headspace of, you know, "What can I do next time out? What can I do in practice, quali, the race?" Whatever. You don't often step back and go, "Oh, I'm in Formula 1. I'm fighting for the championship. I'm traveling the world." You forget those things sometimes because your mind is so buried in what you're trying to achieve. So yeah. But the moments when you're reminded of it or you do take a step back, it's pretty insane because I'm lucky to be here and even luckier to get to fight for the positions that we're fighting for.

So bringing it onto this weekend specifically, Vegas hasn't been very kind to McLaren the last couple of years. Are you confident that it'll go better this year?
LN: Well, I have to be. Apparently, I'm not allowed to say we're not favourites anymore. So, from the last two years, it's certainly been the hardest race of the year that we've had. So my expectations are not to the same level as Mexico, Brazil, where we've been performing very well for a good amount of years. But we've had an excellent year and we've improved in places that we've struggled in the past. So I'm certainly coming in with more confidence than in previous years, but not the same amount of confidence as going into the past few races that we've had. So you never know. Expectations are still high. I'm still coming here to win and to want to repeat the last few weekends that I've had. But I think it's going to be trickier for sure than the last couple.

Franco, congratulations. 24 starts in Formula 1. It's been a challenging season for Alpine this year, but the pace of the car in São Paulo was a little better, and it was very competitive in Pierre's hands here last year. How confident are you that you can challenge for points?
Franco Colapinto: Yeah. I think generally the car has been feeling a lot better. Brazil was a step in the right direction. I think Pierre did an excellent weekend and it was very positive for the team to see the car back in the points, to see the car back up there fighting for good positions - having the pace to compete with other teams was very exciting to see. So I think here, it's a track that is very different, very specific compared to previous races. The tarmac is very tricky as well. So, you know, not really expecting anything amazing, but I think Pierre had a really good weekend here in '24. So it's looking good. I think we improved a lot compared to Mexico, to Austin, and with some good steps in the right direction. So let's see where we are at. But yeah, of course, looking forward to what we can do here.

Esteban, we'll come to you. Haas had a good run here last year. The team is in cracking form at the moment. The car is going very well. What do you think is possible for the team here in Vegas this weekend?
Esteban Ocon: Yeah. I mean, since we've brought the upgrade, the car has been coming into much better form since Austin, and we've been able to get some good points as a team. So yeah, looking forward to seeing what we can achieve. Obviously, it is a weekend here that I really enjoy. I finished fourth here two years ago, so it was a good memory. And it is one that brings opportunities. A lot happens in Turn 1. It's very difficult to get the tyres up to temperature, so you can make the difference with that quite a bit. We don't know if it's going to be raining also at times, so that could be a first. I mean, there's a lot of things that will come into play, but I really look forward to seeing what this car can do here and if we can get the same performance as in recent races.

Questions From The Floor

(David Croft - Sky Sports F1) Lando, question for you. Andrea Stella said there was something in your last stint here in the race last year that gave McLaren an indication of the way to go to improve their fortunes. What did you do in your last stint, last year in Vegas? And what is the answer?
LN: What did I do? I don't know if I should say or not.

(David Croft - Sky Sports F1) Please do.
LN: Alright. I mean, because we were so bad, I just ended up trying as much stuff as I could. And it was more just - actually, I'm not going to say. I'm fighting for a lot, so I want to reveal the least amount possible. But I think we were so bad that you just get to a point where you try a lot. I mean, it's probably not too difficult for people to figure out. But yeah, it's a long race, a lot of laps, and we were struggling consistently with the same thing. So I was just experimenting with a lot - experimenting with my driving, with driving styles, approaches to the car, which is not always easy, trying to figure out how the car likes to get driven because it changes every weekend, and with the toys and things like that. So it was more... Yeah, it took us to the end of the race, the final stint, to really try and figure out what was a bit better. We found pace. Like, even if you look at the race trace now, you can quite easily see the final stint from me was a lot more in line with Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes. I think Lewis' last stint last year was pretty incredible. So we're still quite a long way off what the Mercedes was, but we looked more raceable, let's say. It was just too little, too late. I think we've learned from that. Doesn't mean this year's going to be mega, but it's certainly given us a direction to go in. So it's more experimenting with different things. But I'm not going to tell you. So, yeah, you can try to figure it out.

(Mara Sangiorgio - Sky Sport Italy) A question for Lando. We would like to enter a little bit more into the driver mentality. Are 24 and 49 points enough to feel the title is a little bit more in your control?
LN: I don't know. I think because of the weekend that I had last time out... I don't know what the points swing was prior to Brazil and then post-Brazil - or even if you say prior to Mexico and then post-Brazil - it was a lot of points. And I feel like I've very much been on top of a lot of things the last few weekends, but it's a very difficult level to perform at all the time. And I have incredible drivers that I'm up against. So, you know, my expectation for myself is to try and perform at the same level, but that's not always a guarantee. And I know that it can also just change very quickly - whether it's because you get unlucky or whether you're not performing at the perfect level and the guys I'm up against can perform at that high level. Things can change very easily. So, of course, I feel maybe a little bit more in control, but at the same time, you're not in control of any of these situations. And I'm not thinking of it apart from just going out and taking one session at a time, maximizing FP1 and then FP2. And as long as I treat it like that, it doesn't... I don't feel like I'm in a different position to what I was in Brazil. From the exterior, it's clear that it looks that way. But inside, I think it's treated as completely normal and just keep going as I am.

Lando, talking of levels, do you think you're extracting more from the car recently than you were earlier in the year?
LN: It's hard not to do a better job than what I was doing at the beginning of the season. I certainly struggled at the beginning of the year, and we've changed some little things on the car that we think - not all of them are even guarantees. We've spoken about that in previous races and stuff. But the things with the front suspension and steering - some of it, we think it's better, we think it's going to help us and help me, but it's not a guarantee. So that's helped at times. And even when we put it on, it wasn't like, "Oh, this feels way better." It was more like, we think it's better. If you don't feel anything, we'll just leave it on because we think it's better. But the rest of it is more up to me and just trying to figure it out myself and with the group of people that I have around me - my engineers, my full team. So I certainly feel like I'm doing a much better job. I certainly feel like I'm executing laps better in qualifying and performing very well in the races - good starts, good restarts, all of that, the smaller things, let's say. So I'm definitely doing a better job, but it's not come without the work behind it all.