'Confidence increased’ – Stella bullish on title glory after Norris win

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella says his team’s confidence in winning the 2025 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship has only “increased” after Lando Norris’ crushing victory in Mexico City last weekend.

The Briton’s sixth win of the season, and McLaren 13th overall this year, catapulted the 25-year-old into the lead of the title fight, one point ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri with only four races remaining.

And according to Stella, the message from Mexico is clear: McLaren’s championship belief has gone up another gear.

“The confidence in terms of the championship is increased,” Stella said after the race.

“It's increased because we have proven that we have a car that can win races and in some conditions can dominate races. This is the most important factor to put Lando and Oscar in condition to pursue the Drivers' Championship. I don't think it's about mathematics.”

“I think it's about competitiveness. And it was important to confirm this competitiveness,” the Italian added. “I think even when it comes to Oscar, even if he lost some points to Verstappen, I think Oscar has got a lot of learning from this weekend.

“And that's sort of an investment that you make to make sure that you are competitive in every condition in the final part of the season.

“So overall, we definitely, team and drivers, we come out of this weekend encouraged and optimistic for the final part of the season.”

Lando’s Low-Grip Magic and Team Turnaround

Norris’ masterclass at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez ended a frustrating four-race winless streak for McLaren, during which Verstappen had slashed a 104-point deficit to just 40.

The Briton, who clawed back a 34-point gap to Piastri since his Zandvoort DNF, was untouchable all weekend. Stella sees this as part of a pattern.

“I think when we look at Lando's recent years, we have seen a weekend with this level of dominance also in some other venues. Like last year, I think we saw it in Zandvoort,” he said.

“We saw it in Singapore. So, it's not the first time, I think, that Lando exhibits performances at this level. He was very convincing.”

Norris’ knack for taming tricky, low-grip tracks like Mexico’s was on full display.

“I think he was just essentially fastest in every single session. He was able to capitalise on the performance and the strength of the car,” commented Stella.

"In a way, these special low-grip conditions, they fit perfectly his natural way of extracting lap time, which is almost like opposite to Oscar's characteristics.”

• Read also: Mexican journalist explains Norris’ boos – but Lando doesn’t care

That contrast, Stella believes, sets both drivers up for a fierce final push.

“I think it will just strengthen Lando's confidence and it will be important for the final four races. But I think both Lando and Oscar go into the final four races with reasons to be confident.

“And I think the team also goes into the final four races with more understanding of how to extract performance from the car consistently,” he said.

“Because over the last few races before Mexico, at times we have left some performance in the garage.”

With Norris now back in front and McLaren rediscovering its dominant form, Stella believes both drivers — and the team as a whole — have what it takes to see out the fight.

The message from Woking? Confidence is up, performance is back, and both drivers are “ready to finish the job.”

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