Andrea Stella says Lando Norris is “definitely world championship material”, the McLaren team principal responding to the Briton’s recent criticism of his performances this season.
While Norris has been Max Verstappen's closest challenger in the drivers' standings this season, the Briton expressed his belief that he hadn’t “performed at the level I need if I want to fight for a championship,” while he also highlighted a need to eliminate “little mistakes.”
Stella responded to Norris’ remarks by acknowledging the driver's tendency to be self-critical.
“The first thing I make of his comment is it kind of confirms his style, [which] is quite self-critical,” Stella said.
“He tends to look occasionally at the half-empty part of the glass. In reality, I think that he definitely has the potential of a world champion, and he is performing at world championship level.”
Stella emphasized that Norris’ self-reflection has its advantages, particularly in striving for perfection.
“If we compare against perfection, then definitely we have opportunities [to improve],” he continued. “But I like that we compare ourselves against perfection, because this is what we need to do. I’ve been very encouraged that every little opportunity has been analysed in a great level of detail.”
He further praised Norris for his transparency and willingness to improve.
“Lando has always been very open and transparent – like he [is] with the public – definitely with the team, and we are together in trying to nail and polish all the possible situations in which we need to be better at delivering according to the potential.
"[He is] definitely world championship material – like in everything, [for] Lando, Oscar [Piastri], the entire team, every single opportunity to improve needs to be attacked with determination to improve.”
©McLaren
When questioned if Norris’ errors were a sign of struggling under pressure in a championship fight, Stella was quick to defend his driver, acknowledging that some mistakes were due to team decisions.
“Lando is definitely world championship material. He performs already at levels that I’ve seen in the past in some of the great champions I had the luck to work with,” Stella reiterated.
“He’s on a journey, like the entire team is, and if we compare against perfection, then we do see some opportunities. I mentioned before some of the opportunities coming in the first lap, for instance, and trying to find the balance between being aggressive or simply staying away from situations or accidents.”
Stella also took responsibility for certain race-day decisions that had impacted Norris’ performance.
“We definitely have some things to clean [up] on the start itself, which is not only [down to the] driver, but also the team’s responsibility.
"Then I think he had a couple of situations in the races in which he might have taken some of the responsibility, but I think it was the team’s responsibility – like if we think of Canada, a case in which we didn’t pit Lando for the late Safety Car before the pit entry, or if I think about Silverstone and the final stint.
“That’s the team’s responsibility – if the team had operated at higher standards, then Lando would have more points in the championship.
“Definitely as a team we kind of appreciate that he puts some of the pressure on himself or he raises his hand and says, ‘it was on me’.
“But I think I have enough experience to say, ‘don’t worry, that’s on the team – keep doing the good job, keep working to improve on your own opportunities’, but definitely we as a team have quite a lot of work to do as well.”
Regarding Norris’ chances in this year’s title race, Stella remained optimistic but realistic.
“He can win world championships – that’s a statement that is [in] capital letters. In terms of this year’s championships, certainly we don’t give up.
"Numerically, from a drivers’ championship point of view, it looks like there’s a big gap to fill, and we are chasing Max Verstappen, so definitely he’s not going to make it easy for us.
“But we are excited to be in this position, and definitely Lando is not in this position because somebody helped him – Lando is in this position because he performs very strongly, and that’s something that we should acknowledge and realise in terms of his achievements, not only in terms of the one, two, three opportunities in a season in which he could have done better, because this is normal, and this is normal for every world champion in every season.”
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