Stella: Lando can sometimes underestimate his work

Lando Norris took 2nd place in Mexico City, while Max Verstappen, who received two 10-second time penalties during the race, finished only sixth and his lead in the individual championship was reduced to 47 points.

That’s still a lot, but there are still four stages to go, two of which involve sprints, so the McLaren driver’s mathematical chances of the title are quite high, especially as it looks like the current world champion is starting to get his nerves to lose. .

At the same time, as promised, Norris is driving more aggressively, albeit thoughtfully, and this tactic worked last weekend.

According to McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, he tried to help Lando get into the right mindset before the race: “I told him: “Don’t worry, everything will be fine, time will judge everything.”

Lando can sometimes underestimate his racing, feeling like the glass is half empty when it comes to what he could achieve. But during the conversations within the team where we analyze his work, we always make it clear that we appreciate his approach, that we approve of the way he behaves on court.

The driver’s job is to fight correctly while adhering to sporting principles – it is not his job to try to restore justice himself. This must be done by a third party, in this case the stewards, who will say whether certain maneuvers are correct or not.

Don’t lose your cool. There is no need to prove anything to anyone. You just have to try to fight properly and properly. Lando showed very good pace, we were ahead of one of the Ferrari cars and if he had not lost time behind Max Verstappen at the start of the race, he could very well have challenged for the win. This is evident from telemetry data, because in the second part of the distance he confirmed that he was as fast as the Ferrari.

All this is very encouraging as we prepare for the next races. In Mexico City, Lando raced the upgraded MCL38, and I have to thank McLaren’s engineering department again for preparing his car.

In Brazil, Oscar Piastri will also receive these latest updates. He also rode a great race and although it was not easy to work his way through the peloton, he showed the necessary patience and earned valuable points for the team. But now we will focus all our attention on preparing for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. We think that another fun race awaits us there, in which we will compete with Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes. This is all good for Formula 1 and for us, because it gives us all pleasure!”