Lando Norris’ dominance of the 2025 Method 1 Mexico Grand Prix stemmed from the monitor suiting his driving fashion, reckons McLaren staff boss Andrea Stella.
The long-time McLaren racer by no means misplaced place to win from pole on Sunday on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which means he took the F1 2025 championship lead with 4 rounds remaining.
That’s as a result of erstwhile chief Oscar Piastri solely completed fifth within the sister McLaren, because the Australian struggled to deal with the high-altitude, low-grip nature of the Mexico circuit.
It causes the vehicles to slip loads by corners and Stella mentioned this suited Norris, who leads Piastri by a degree having reclaimed a championship lead that he misplaced at April’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
“These particular low-grip situations, they match completely,” mentioned Stella of Norris, who ended McLaren’s five-race winless streak. “It is a pure approach of extracting lap time, which is sort of reverse to Oscar’s traits.
“It would simply strengthen Lando’s confidence and it will likely be essential for the ultimate 4 races. However I feel each Lando and Oscar go into the ultimate 4 races with causes to be assured.
“I feel the staff additionally goes into the ultimate 4 races with extra understanding of the right way to extract efficiency from the automotive persistently, as a result of over the previous few races earlier than Mexico, at instances, we’ve left some efficiency within the storage.”
Lando Norris, McLaren, Andrea Stella, McLaren
Picture by: Andy Hone/ LAT Pictures by way of Getty Pictures
This marks a far cry from the remainder of the yr, as Norris had repeatedly acknowledged his struggles to push the MCL39 to its restrict. That has notably been seen in qualifying, as Pink Bull’s Max Verstappen holds essentially the most pole positions this yr with seven, in comparison with 5 for each McLaren drivers.
However a breakthrough second got here in a post-Singapore debrief simply two rounds earlier than Mexico, as McLaren and Norris sought to learn how the MCL39 could possibly be arrange extra to his liking.
It will definitely led to the tenth grand prix victory of the 25-year-old’s profession. Mexico was additionally essentially the most statistically dominant win of any driver since Verstappen in Hungary two years in the past, as Norris completed 30s forward of runner-up Charles Leclerc – 4 seconds shy of the Dutchman’s successful margin in Budapest.
Stella was not stunned by Norris’ efficiency although, given he has proven related tempo up to now having received from pole on seven events now.
“Once we take a look at Lando’s latest years, we’ve seen a weekend with this stage of dominance additionally in another venues,” mentioned Stella. “Final yr, we noticed it in Zandvoort, we noticed it in Singapore. So, it isn’t the primary time, I feel, that Lando reveals performances at this stage.
“Right here [in Mexico], he was very convincing. I feel he was simply basically quickest in each single session. He was in a position to capitalise on the efficiency and the power of the automotive.”
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