McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said Lando Norris’ constant evolution helped him become world champion in 2025 after learning he could compete with Max Verstappen last year.
In 2024, with McLaren becoming more competitive, Norris tried to chase Verstappen in the drivers’ championship, but with three races remaining, the Briton fell short. This year, Red Bull have struggled for consistency in the first two-thirds of the season, with Norris having to not only beat Verstappen but also teammate Oscar Piastri, and Stella said the new world champion’s growth over the season should not be underestimated.
“The level of F1 drivers these days is so high that it is impossible to be successful. And to be clear, when we talk about success, it was very close in classification and even between Lando and Oscar, they were worthy champions and when they scored over 400 points, in the end it was just a matter of a few points,” Stella said. But to compete at this level, the only way to keep exploring is to continually evolve.
“And if you look at Lando, he certainly gained a lot from last year’s quest. Even if he didn’t make it to the final race, I think Lando almost improved his status to say, ‘I can compete with Max.’
“There were some lessons to be learned, like the Austria game, which was a tough game, but this season was another important turning point in my view. That was Lando, and I’ll talk specifically about him for a moment, how we responded to the difficulties we had at the beginning of the season.”
“There, a structured process began, which was holistic and included personal growth, professional, driving and racecraft. And I’m particularly pleased that Lando was able to take advantage of this, because this is something we haven’t necessarily seen many times before in terms of the amount of work, the people involved and the speed of development.”
Stella added that Piastri has also grown rapidly in his three years with the team, and his ability to deal with disappointment has been particularly impressive.
“This was true for both of our drivers, (they) were able to absorb some tough moments, for example when we had to tell the drivers that we were disqualified. It was tough because they were doing their job and we weren’t and they lost a lot of points,” he said. “And in the same way, we absorbed the fact that there were moments in Qatar where we could have done better, but we didn’t blame the team.
“There are many areas in which both drivers have grown, but in particular their continued support of the team is what I am not only most proud of them for, but I think is also the most important to our overall success.”
