McLaren has issued a bold statement of intent to rival Red Bull following Lando Norris’ dominant win last weekend in Singapore: the “mission is on” for championship glory in both of F1’s title fights.
Norris' crushing victory at Marina Bay – his third of the season – coupled with Oscar Piastri’s podium has allowed McLaren to extend its lead over Red Bull in the Constructors’ standings to 41 points with six races and three Sprint events remaining.
The team’s momentum has been undeniable since the summer break, as they continue to close the gap in both championship battles. However, Max Verstappen still holds a 52-point lead over Norris in the Drivers’ championship.
But Stella believes that the Briton’s chances of catching and overhauling his Red Bull rival are intact.
“It’s not always going to be that easy in the next few races but it’s very promising,” commented Stella after his team’s triumph in Singapore.
“It is also promising that Oscar [Piastri] found a way to beat the two Mercedes today, got back on the podium, many points for the championship and definitely the drivers’ championship is still on, the mission is on!”
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“Hopefully we’ll have a few more [wins] in the next six races.
“Yeah, fully deserved by Lando. In fairness he’s been very quick throughout the weekend. I think yesterday, he was very conscious in his Q3 lap, we thought that by pushing 100% we could have gone even faster, so just everything came together this weekend.”
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The magnitude of Norris’ win at Marina Bay led many to question how McLaren had managed to deliver such a dominant performance despite very little changes to the team’s MCL38, save for tweaking the latter’s controversial rear wing.
Stella reckoned that Singapore’s track characteristics favoured its car.
“If I look at previous races, at this high level of downforce, we seem to be very competitive,” the Italian explained.
“So I think it might have more to do with the level of downforce than with the fact that we may be chipping away at getting more and more out of the car.
“I think the car has been strong in this configuration. I always make the examples of Hungary, Zandvoort. Even Hungary was a relatively dominant victory in itself—like Zandvoort, like this one.
“I think at the moment it’s more that the car in this configuration has the better aerodynamic efficiency across the grid,” he added.
“While at low drag, I think the efficiency of Ferrari and Red Bull is much more comparable to our car.
“We know, certainly, that we have invested much more at this level of downforce than what we have done at lower downforce.
“Even though, I’ve said already, after races like Spa and Monza, we have definitely made a step forward in terms of retaining downforce when we reduce the level of drag.”
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