McLaren team principal Andrea Stella recognizes significant progress in Lando Norris compared to last year in qualifying and also in terms of “race craft “
One sprint pole, one Grand Prix pole and two Grand Prix podiums: that’s Lando Norris’ tally after the five race weekends of the 2024 Formula 1 season so far. The Briton has made a much better start to the season than in 2023, when McLaren struggled with his early form
Apart from the fact that the current MCL38 offers a more solid basis, Team Principal Andrea Stella also sees further development in Norris’ qualities as a driver.
“I think that this year Lando has been able to capitalize on many of the points and opportunities we identified last year,” says Stella, referring first of all to Norris’ improved performance in qualifying.
“How do you manage to put in clean laps in qualifying? He was fast last year. But we had several situations like in Qatar, where he could have been on pole position, but both laps in Q3 were canceled. You could take a lot from that and some other situations.”
“So he did a really good job, working with his engineers and the support of the factory on the possibilities and making some small adjustments to make better use of the car’s potential. So that’s to his credit,” praises the McLaren team boss.
He also sees Norris becoming “more and more consistent” in the race. “He seems to understand better and better what’s going on, what’s going on with the tires, how long they can last. “
“It’s just what we normally call race craft,” says Stella, “and that seems to be getting bigger and more accurate.” Norris has been driving for McLaren in Formula 1 since 2019 and celebrated his 15th podium with second place in China.
This puts the 24-year-old ahead of Nico Hülkenberg (13) in the ranking of drivers with the most podiums without a win, as he has not yet stood at the top of the podium.
