Autobayng News Team
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella deserves the highest praise for their success this year, says Lando Norris.
Stella led McLaren to their first constructors’ championship for 26 years last season. They are virtually guaranteed to win the title again this year, having built up an enormous lead over their rivals.
Norris, who has spent his entire Formula 1 career at McLaren, said Stella “has been the most important part of everything” in taking McLaren to the dominant position it enjoys today.
“I’ve had a few different team principals over the years, but for me – I don’t want to say I’m biased, but I am – I do genuinely believe that Andrea is the most switched-on, humanly understanding, genuine person and the best team principal you can have.
“He’s also one of only three I’ve ever worked with, but I’ve been with McLaren for a good amount of years and seen a lot of changes happen. A lot of people come and go.”
Stella took charge of McLaren at the end of 2022 when his predecessor Andreas Seidl left to join Sauber. However Norris pointed out that McLaren has been able to avoid many other changes of personnel during that time.
“One of the biggest differences now isn’t that we changed the whole team – 99% of the team is the same as we had three years prior. But it’s the person in charge: Andrea.
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“It’s his ability to understand people, to put them together, to know how they work, how to get the most out of every single person. I think he has a better understanding of this than anyone I’ve ever met, even inside of racing, outside of racing. I think he’s one of the smartest people on that side of things.
“That’s what you need to run a team of a couple of thousand people: someone who understands how to get the most out of every individual and how to bring everyone together at the same time.
“I don’t want to seem like I like him too much – but for me, there are lots of important pieces in our success, but I put a lot of it down to Andrea. I’ll thank Andrea for the rest of my life after the season we’ve had this year, because most of it is down to him.”
Norris has strengthened his position in the drivers’ championship in recent races, winning three of the last four grands prix. That has left him just nine points off team mate Oscar Piastri at the top of the standings.
Stella has stood by the team’s philosophy of allowing their drivers to race each other, despite Norris tangling with Piastri in the Canadian Grand Prix. Norris won the last race in Hungary after being allowed to use a drastically different strategy to his team mate, which helped him take the lead.
Norris said the team will continue to allow both drivers to fight each other over the remainder of the season. “I think we both want, as drivers, things not to be overly strict,” he said. “We don’t want to be told not to race.
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“We’re here as individuals to race and prove who can do a better job. So of course there were discussions, there have been reviews – every race we make tweaks to things. We have a good understanding as a team.
“That happened after Budapest: no major changes. But we still have a constructors’ [championship] to win, and that’s the priority at this point.”
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