Lando Norris says McLaren team principal Andrea Stella deserves credit for bringing the team to the front of the field in Formula 1.
McLaren are enjoying their most successful season in over a decade in Formula 1 in 2024, having taken three race victories, four pole positions and 15 podium finishes over the first 16 rounds.
Stella took over as team principal of McLaren ahead of the 2023 season following the departure of Andrea Seidl, who had led the team since Norris’s debut season in 2019. Norris says he “wouldn’t ask for anyone else to have [Stella’s] job” out of everyone he has worked with in Formula 1.
“I think Andrea is one of the most integral parts of kind of keeping the team together, motivating the team, pushing the team, making the team what it is today, which is close to – or probably is – being the best team in Formula 1 at the minute,” Norris told the official F1 channel. “So I have a lot of confidence in him.
“We just work well. There’s always good points, constructive points, criticism points, but everything that will just make us work better as a team.
“I think the most important thing that we have is just honesty between one another. When I agree or disagree, when he agrees or disagrees, we say it to one another and we kind of come up with the best solution. So I’m very happy with how he works, how he wants to understand things.”
Earlier in his career Stella was a race engineer to world champions including Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. “He’s a smart guy, but he’s also a racer,” Norris continued. “He knows how you go racing.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“He’s worked with a lot of incredible drivers in the past, so he knows the mentality of drivers as well and how every driver just wants to go out and win and kind of not listen to what people say, but also know you have to at the same time. So I couldn’t ask for a better boss.”
Heading into this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Stella has taken the step of asking Oscar Piastri to support Norris’ bid to chase down his 62-point deficit to Max Verstappen in the world championship over the remainder of the season. Norris says that the team’s arrangement is more nuanced than him simply having clear number one status.
“A lot of people think it’s very simple and very straightforward – it’s not,” he said. “People can believe what they want and come up…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…