McLaren expects 'great spectacle' between Norris and Piastri until 'the end'

13:28, 20 Aug

Updated: 14:15, 20 Aug

byKada Sarkozi

Entering the summer break, after 14 rounds, the title battle seems to be between the two McLaren drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Is there more pressure on the more experienced Briton?

"Lando may have a bit more experience in terms of number of races. He started the season in Australia with a strong result, but ultimately, in Australia, Oscar was there with Lando. Oscar lost points in Australia just because we had the sudden rain in the final part of the circuit," McLaren team principal Andrea Stella began to answer that question in Hungary.

The Italian sees the current championship leader, Oscar Piastri, to be a quick learner. The Australian is currently in his third F1 campaign.

"I think one of Oscar's qualities is to learn very fast, very rapidly. He has demonstrated it in his career, winning pretty much first year in all the junior categories. He has demonstrated it at McLaren. Now we have Lando and Oscar driving and operating at very, very similar levels."

Previously, Norris talked about how the updates made it harder for him to adapt to the car, but sees he made a step forward in terms of finding solutions.

"This season, what we have to acknowledge as a team is that we have made some modifications to the launch version of the car that actually affected Lando's driving style," Stella continued.

"We made some upgrades which mean that right now some of the settings used by Lando and Oscar are slightly different, but we are pleased that now both drivers can drive to a certain extent in a natural way. They can express their talent, and we see that they are very, very close."

Stella expects 'interesting battle'

"This makes it a great spectacle for Formula 1, this is what we wanted to achieve as a team, and I think it's going to be very interesting until the end of the season," he said about the battle he expects between the two teammates.

The Italian said however he will only think it's a two-driver battle, once that is mathematically the case.

"We remain concentrated, but we want to put our drivers in a position to sustain their quest until the end of the season."