McLaren CEO Zak Brown has conceded to suffering "high stress" with his F1 team on the brink of ending a 26-year wait for the constructors' championship.
McLaren head into the final three grands prix of Formula 1's record-breaking 24-race campaign with a 36-point cushion over Ferrari, with the Scuderia also with its sights on its first teams' title since 2008.
Ferrari outscored McLaren by 39 points in the last triple-header in the United States, Mexico and Brazil. A repeat of that feat, and it it is they who will become champions.
It is why Brown is far from entertaining the notion that McLaren has one hand on the trophy.
"It's high stress because we haven't been here - I've never been here - since 1998," said Brown, speaking at a media roundtable event in Las Vegas, attended by RacingNews365, with new primary partner Mastercard.
"A 36-point lead can evaporate in one race weekend when you've got Ferrari, who could easily finish first and second [in a grand prix].
"Anything can happen in a street race, or as we saw in Brazil. So for those people who have come up to me [saying it is] a foregone conclusion we're going to win the championship, I kind of want to punch them in the nose [chuckling].
"But a lot of people have asked, 'What are we doing differently now?' 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.
"We've seen, from the start of the year, when Max [Verstappen] won, whatever it was, five, six races in a row [four of the first five], myself, and I think pretty much everybody went, 'Well, this championship is over', and here we are. That's just how quickly things can change.
"The minute you think you've done it before you're in the end zone is a big mistake to make. I feel good about where we are, but we're very focused, and we're not going to celebrate until we have the right to celebrate."
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Team work makes the dream work
Brown is adamant the reason why McLaren is where it is today is due to the fact it is a whole team effort, across every department.
"I feel great about where McLaren is at the moment," he said. "I think the men and women at McLaren have done an awesome job in every aspect of the racing team.
"Obviously we've developed a very good race car. We spend very efficiently, with great ROI on where we deploy our resources. We've got a fantastic culture. We're looking after our people. We're looking after our people's family. That's bringing a lot of energy.
"We have 24 races for the first time, and it's hard, not only on the racing team, but it's easy to forget, it's actually harder on the families, the partners, the kids that are sitting at home, missing their mom, their dad, who is traveling around the world.
"Even if you're not traveling, you're in the factory working seven days a week. You're working long, long shifts.
"Our commercial department, our brand, managing our partnerships, bringing in new partnerships, bringing in 100 partners, more than any racing team in the world, and we have an awesome fan base through our communications team.
"Every single department, if you like, puts performance on the race car, because if you don't have great aero, you don't have a great wind tunnel, and if you don't have a great wind tunnel, then you don't have great partners from the commercial department that's allowing you to invest in the wind tunnel, etcetera, etcetera."
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