Stella hails Norris’s growth: “more capable” and in control
Photo: Race Pictures
14:55, 26 Jul
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Savannah Lenz is a Formula 1 journalist at GPblog with a broad interest in motorsport. With experience in content creation and journalism, she delivers accessible and reliable coverage for a global F1 audience.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella sees a stronger Lando Norris after winning the 2025 World Drivers’ Championship. He explained the changes after Norris took pole position. The Hungaroring is known as a track where overtaking is hard. This makes pole position especially important.
Speaking to the media, including GPblog, Stella said, “Lando kept a trajectory going, a trajectory that he started last year after the first one-third of the season, in which he had experienced some very competitive weekends and some weekends in which he was struggling to extract the most from the car, or he might have struggled to capitalise on the performance in Q3.”
“You may remember a couple of events in which this happened, and also you may remember that he was talking about not getting enough feedback from the car. I think that was an important point for Lando himself and for the team working with Lando to understand in which area we needed to improve to offer a car that Lando could trust, could drive without having to think too much.”
Norris’s pole position breaks the streak of Mercedes dominating qualifying. So far, only George Russell and Kimi Antonelli have had pole position.
Photo: Race Pictures
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Stella sees a new calmness in Norris
Going more in depth, Stella added, “But at the same time, it was also an opportunity to reflect on the mindset, approach to racing, expectation, and emotional control. So, I think it was an improvement in a very organic and holistic way for the driver and for the team around the driver. And the driver just kept this trajectory."
“So, he's driving better this year because he was driving better at the end of the season last year compared to mid-season and mid-season compared to the first third of the season.” Stella continued, “It's just a trajectory that, as a professional athlete or driver, you just have to keep going all the time. And this is not only for the driver. But also for all the people around the driver."
“When I see Lando technically driving now, I think he's just more capable of having an awareness of what he wants and finding the ways to kind of get it, either from the car or from the engineers or from adapting his driving style. So all this process of optimisation I think is just more robust.”
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