Norris driving at 'world champion level' as Stella hails continued improvement

The 26-year-old produced a superb drive to overhaul championship leader Kimi Antonelli at the Dutch Grand Prix, adding to the triumph he had before the summer break in Hungary.

Norris has closed the gap to Antonelli down to 83 points, a smaller gap than what Max Verstappen nearly overcame in 2025. His confidence appears to be growing as the season goes on, and Stella believes Norris is improving every race.

Piastri finished 32 seconds behind Norris at the Dutch Grand Prix in sixth. At one point, it looked like he could fight for a podium finish, but that was undone when he dropped back after being passed by both Ferrari drivers during the second stint of the race.

Stella says both McLaren drivers have shown improvement, although a question mark remains over the Australian.

He said: "We have invested, like I said before, in trying to understand where was the opportunity from a tyre exploitation point of view and car improvement.