Why are McLaren improving at a drastic rate? Lando Norris reveals all

On media day, when asked about McLaren's improvement, Norris said that he is of course, happy, but as a true racer, hopes for more. "We've challenged Ferrari a good amount, but we're not challenging Red Bull enough or to the same amount. But this is all down to the people, this is down to people maximising their abilities."

McLaren maximises the potential of staff

The Brit continued: "Some of the people that we have now we've had for many many years, the same people we had five/six years ago. It's not just new people that we've hired who have suddenly gone, ‘Okay, you should be doing this, you should be doing that.’ Some of it is just maximising the potential of the people you have and exploiting those areas and letting people work in a good environment, using the great minds that we have and adding to that by adding some new people with fresh minds and different perspectives and just maximising how a team should work.

One key figure who joined the team at the start of 2024 was Rob Marshall. McLaren's chief designer had a 17-year tenure with world champions Red Bull and has added experience and expertise to McLaren's current pool of staff.

"That's really been the biggest area of improvement, maximising everyone's abilities and knowing how to do that, which has often been led and I say had the biggest difference since Andrea came in and stepped up. A lot of stuff has been led by Andrea, and a lot of changes have happened under Andrea's lead. When something needs to happen, it happens, and he's made a very good impact on the team."

Andrea Stella has impacted McLaren hugely since he began his tenure as team principal in 2023, and will continue to maximise the potential of his team in order to lead them to victory.