Andrea Stella reveals how Lando Norris ‘elevated his sense of status’ in Max Verstappen fight

McLaren’s Andrea Stella said he believes Lando Norris began to believe he could compete with Max Verstappen in 2024, leading to his title success in ’25.

Norris entered the arena of fighting for world championships during the F1 2024 season, emerging as a surprise challenger for Max Verstappen as McLaren’s MCL38 became a frontrunner.

Andrea Stella: Lando Norris elevated his sense of status

While the start of the F1 2024 season saw Verstappen continue in the same vein he had ended ’23, by dominating the early stages of the season, McLaren’s MCL38 began to emerge as a threat during the first quarter of the year.

This led to Norris claiming his maiden F1 victory with a win at the Miami Grand Prix and, almost out of nowhere, a title challenge to Verstappen’s seemingly impervious dominance started.

However, Norris was to ultimately lose out in that season, having never quite managed to significantly close the gap on Verstappen’s points total despite having the seemingly more competitive machine for most of the season.

It was the first season in which Norris ended up racing directly against the Dutch driver and, with the duo known to be friends, Norris appeared reluctant to race Verstappen with the same level of aggression that the four-time F1 World Champion is renowned for.

But Verstappen did not start 2025 with a similar head start, with Norris instead having to share more of the first-half success with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri as Red Bull’s RB21 initially struggled for consistency.

The Australian appeared the title favourite for most of the year, particularly following a mechanical failure for Norris at Zandvoort, but the British driver went on an inspired run of form in the final quarter to establish himself as the likely title winner against a resurgent Verstappen and Red Bull.

A podium finish in Abu Dhabi ended up being all Norris needed to wrap up his maiden title, which he duly delivered under intense pressure at the Yas Marina circuit, putting an end to Verstappen’s four-year spell as the man to beat in F1.

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Having won his first title, Norris joins a small and elite list of drivers who have achieved the ultimate prize in Formula 1, and Norris’ team boss Andrea Stella said he could quite clearly see that his driver had raised his game in 2025 after getting a taste of what was needed during ’24.

“The level of Formula 1 drivers nowadays is so high that you cannot succeed… and, for clarity, when we talk about succeeding, it’s so close even in the classification and even between Lando and Oscar, there are two worthwhile champions, and it was a matter of a few points in the end, where you scored more than 400 points,” Stella told the media including PlanetF1.com after the chequered flag.

“But, to compete at this level, the only way to stay in the quest is to keep evolving continuously.

“If I look at Lando, definitely, there was a lot that was taken away from the quest last year, even if it didn’t go to the last race.

“I think Lando elevated his sense of status, like ‘I can compete with Max’.

“There were some learning points, like Austria [2024], which was a tough one [where Norris and Verstappen collided – editor]. But this season, there was another important turning point, in my view, which is the way Lando responded to the difficulties we had at the start of the season.

“There was the start of a process, which was structured. It was holistic. It involved personal development, professional driving, and racecraft.

“I think it makes me particularly glad that Lando could capitalise on this, because this has been something that, not necessarily, I’ve seen many times before, in terms of the amount of work the people involved, and the rate of development.

“So I think this has made Lando even capable, and this is valid for both our drivers, of absorbing a couple of tough moments, like when we needed to tell the drivers that we got disqualified [after Las Vegas], that was tough because they had done the job, but we had not, and they lost a lot of points.

“In a similar way, absorbing the fact that, in Qatar, we had a moment where we could have done better, but we never pointed the finger at the team.

“So there are so many aspects in which both drivers have grown, and especially this constant support to the team, not only is the one that makes me most proud of our two guys, but I think it is also the most important for the overall success.”

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Stella’s long career has seen him previously serve as performance engineer to Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari, and had encountered a three-way title showdown with both drivers in the past – Schumacher at the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix, and Raikkonen at the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix.

On both occasions, Stella’s man won the title, with Norris making it a trio of showdown victories for the Italian, and Stella was asked where he sees Norris slotting in against such luminaries as those historic Champions.

“There are a few examples, a few situations taken from the past that I have been thinking about during the entire weekend,” he said.

“I think when it comes to the quality of the driver, the quality of the success that Lando achieved this season, I think the level of Formula 1 drivers nowadays is very, very high.

“Probably this is because the drivers have already, from when they drive go-karts, they have telemetry data, they are so well supported, and they’re just on pace.

“We see, like for some established drivers, it is sometimes difficult to keep up with the new generation. So it’s a very high-quality achievement.

“I think it is also an achievement that beats Max Verstappen, four-time world champion, in a team that knows the game very well.

“So I think it is one that is very, very high level, very high quality, and very prestigious.”

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