McLaren Formula 1 boss Andrea Stella has praised Lando Norris for his role in the team’s recovery over the past year and how he’s coped with the stress of his win drought.
Ahead of embarking upon his sixth season in the top flight, Norris has established himself as one of the best drivers on the entire grid but he is still awaiting an elusive F1 victory.
The Briton ended runner-up to then team-mate Daniel Ricciardo when McLaren scored a 1-2 at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix before a late rain shower in Russia prevented him from converting his maiden pole position.
But having finished third in 2020, McLaren had slipped to fourth in the standings and dropped further to fifth upon the sport’s switch to ground effect machinery in 2022.
McLaren’s plight appeared to be continuing into the past season as it opened the year without scoring in the first two rounds with an underdeveloped version of the MCL60.
However, a string of upgrades from the Austrian Grand Prix onwards propelled the Woking squad into front-running contention, with Norris accruing seven podiums to help McLaren rise to fourth in the championship.
Stella, now one year into his role at the helm of McLaren, has commended Norris for not radiating the pressure linked to achieving his debut F1 victory onto the team environment.
“Lando is in a phase of his career which he kind of feels the pressure of: ‘I want to win a race, I want to be there with the guys that I know I’m as good as and I see them winning races’,” Stella told Autosport in an interview.
“I can really understand, the team can really understand the kind of stress that this can create.
“The first thing for me I would like to say is how good he was in coping with this stress.
“Because some other drivers could have reverted, could have transferred their stress onto the team.
“Could have said: ‘guys, I’m here, I’m ready to perform, but where is the car?’ Never heard anything like this [from Lando].
“His contribution, his support to the team has always been very constructive.”
Norris rued errors in qualifying costing him potential victories late in the season, particularly in Qatar when team-mate Oscar Piastri landed a memorable win in the Sprint.
Despite the Australian beating comfortably trumped by 205 points to 97, Piastri excelled in his rookie campaign to add two podium finishes to his standout Sprint race success.
Stella credited Piastri for “the way he keeps himself calm, controlled” to ensure that he’s “always capitalising on his potential because he doesn’t create any unnecessary stress”.
“That’s quite exceptional. And I can see why he was so successful in junior categories [Piastri scored consecutive Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles in 2020-21],” he added.
