Andrea Stella has worked with many champions in Formula 1, and for the McLaren team principal, Lando Norris is already on a par with them
For McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella, Lando Norris is in the same category as all the top drivers he has worked with in his career. Stella was performance engineer to Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen at Ferrari, among others, before later becoming race engineer to the Finn and Fernando Alonso.
The Italian is now responsible for the fortunes of McLaren and says: “Lando is definitely on a par with them.” He emphasizes, “It’s the same category, the same kind of world championship material: the underlying talent, the mindset, the work ethic. It’s all prepared.”
For him, there is one characteristic above all that distinguishes the real champions in Formula 1: They get better year on year.
“And I think that’s because they use the intelligence and the ethos and have the best people around them,” he says. “They’re doing whatever it takes to get better and better because the sport is becoming more competitive.”
Stella emphasizes that Norris’ raw talent was already evident when the Englishman first took part in free practice for the team in 2018. “That was very obvious,” says the team boss.”
“And then it continued to grow. It’s there, we just have to keep growing it year after year, as is the case with every champion,” says Stella. “But we’re very happy with Lando in that respect.”
The high regard in which Norris is held became clear last week when McLaren extended the Briton’s contract on a long-term basis, even though Norris still had a current contract until 2025.
Although Norris has yet to win a race in his Formula 1 career, he is said to have attracted the interest of top teams such as Red Bull. However, he himself emphasized that no other team was able to convince him to switch and that he has all the ingredients he needs at McLaren.