Stella: Norris still improving – something ‘clicked’ in 2025

Lando Norris is still finding new levels, and McLaren boss Andrea Stella believes the reigning world champion’s transformation over the past year has been one of the most striking developments of his Formula 1 career.

Norris underlined that progress at Zandvoort, turning pole into his second consecutive Grand Prix victory despite a race that initially threatened to become complicated.

After losing the lead to Kimi Antonelli following the second standing start, the McLaren driver patiently worked his way back into contention before producing a decisive move to reclaim first place.

What particularly caught Stella’s eye was not simply the result, but the quality of Norris’ execution.

With the hard tyre proving difficult for many drivers to exploit and Antonelli benefiting from fresher rubber after a second stop, Norris maintained the kind of pace that allowed him to remain firmly in control once he retook the lead.

“I think Lando is driving and operating at very high level, in absolute sense, in relation to [being] Formula 1 World Champion,” Stella said after the race.

That assessment carries considerable weight coming from a team boss who has watched Norris develop from a promising young driver into McLaren’s title-winning spearhead. Yet Stella believes the process is far from complete.

The moment Norris changed gear

For Stella, Norris’ continued development is perhaps the most impressive aspect of his evolution. The McLaren boss believes something fundamentally shifted for his driver during the early stages of the 2025 campaign, with the lessons from that period seemingly accelerating his growth.

“I think he's driving at the level of a World Champion and like I always say for Lando, what I like the most of his journey in Formula 1 is that he keeps improving. I think especially after the start of the 2025 season, something clicked,” he explained.

“It's almost like I see Lando getting stronger and stronger race by race, because I think his weekend was nowhere near a weekend in which we could fight for the victory… after having seen the performance in the Sprint.”

That last point was particularly telling. McLaren had not looked like an obvious winner after the Sprint, leaving the team with some homework to do before Sunday. Rather than simply accepting the competitive order, however, Stella and his engineers went looking for an answer.

They found one in tyre exploitation and car performance – and Norris was able to turn that work into an advantage once the race unfolded.

“But we invested in trying to understand where was the opportunity from a tyre exploitation point of view and car improvement… I think when you have conditions in which the car slides in the race, there's not much grip, then I think he is the master in this kind of conditions,” Stella said.

Norris keeps the title fight alive

The Zandvoort victory was therefore more than another win for Norris. It was another demonstration of how effectively he is now able to extract performance when the conditions become awkward and the car is not simply carrying him to the front.

That represents a significant turnaround for McLaren, which began the season in far less commanding fashion. The team endured a difficult opening phase, including a race in China where neither car was able to start, before its development programme began to transform the competitive picture.

The upgrades introduced at the Hungarian Grand Prix have since helped Norris string together consecutive victories, providing fresh momentum in his bid to defend the world championship.

The task remains formidable. Kimi Antonelli still holds a substantial 83-point advantage over Norris, meaning the McLaren driver cannot afford many more weekends in which he leaves points on the table.

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But if Stella is right about Norris continuing to strengthen with every race, McLaren may have a champion who is becoming increasingly formidable precisely when the championship enters its decisive phase.

For a driver who already owns a world title, that may be the most encouraging development of all.

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