McLaren teases more to come after Lando Norris’ stellar victory at Australian GP
McLaren's Andrea Stella believed that Lando Norris had many more wins left in his bag for the 2025 season following Australian GP win.
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Lando Norris (via XPB images)
Lando Norris led the majority of the Australian GP and kept Max Verstappen at bay throughout the race. Norris emerged victorious in the race despite tricky conditions on the track. Norris still faced some issues with the challenger and also spun out at one moment in the rack. Regardless, the 25-year-old won the race as McLaren now looks ahead at more such positive performances down the season.
Despite leading the majority of the race, Lando Norris came extremely close to Max Verstappen towards the end of the Australian GP. Norris still managed to keep the Dutchman behind him and soared through the chequered flag as a race winner. It was later revealed that the Briton had some damage to his chassis which caused him problems in maintaining the massive lead against Verstappen.
McLaren’s Team Principal Andrea Stella revealed that Norris had pretty badly damaged the floor of his challenger. The Briton lost the aerodynamic performance of the car and couldn’t utilize the full pace available. Hence, this was the reason behind the race coming extremely close towards the end against Verstappen. Stella reckoned that the situation wouldn’t have been as close if the 25-year-old’s car did not sustain damage on the underbody towards the end.
One issue we had in the final laps of the race with Lando is that he had the floor pretty badly damaged. He lost aerodynamic performance, and this meant that he couldn’t utilise the full pace of the car. So I think the situation got more tense than would have normally been the case because of this damage on Lando’s car.
Andrea Stella said, as reported by GPblog
Even Oscar Piastri spun out mid-way through the race and lost all track positions. However, Stella highlighted that Piastri could gain multiple positions within the span of a few laps. Hence, under normal circumstances, both the drivers, especially Norris wouldn’t have faced so many issues in performance against the rivals.
I think how strong the car was we could see actually with Oscar, that in the space of a few laps, he recovered three, four positions. I think in normal circumstances, it shouldn’t have been that difficult for Lando.
Andrea Stella added
Andrea Stella ‘not surprised’ over Max Verstappen’s close competition
Max Verstappen was racing in a much inferior challenger as compared to McLaren’s. Still, the Dutchman managed to remain in contention for the race victory towards the end of the race. As a result, Andrea Stella believed that it wasn’t very surprising to witness the 27-year-old come close to Lando Norris by the end of the Australian GP.
Stella insisted that Red Bull and Verstappen were aware of how to make quick cars and extract the maximum performance. Moreover, the reigning world champion is known to excel in tricky and treacherous conditions, which helped him further bridge the gap on track. As a result, it was not surprising to see the 27-year-old come close to the race win by the end of the race.
It’s Verstappen and Red Bull. They know how to make quick cars, they know how to race fast, and they know how to race well in this kind of tricky and changeable conditions. So not a surprise that Verstappen was so close to us and he was in contention for the victory until the last metre of the race.
Andrea Stella noted
Andrea Stella reveals why Max Verstappen failed to defeat Lando Norris
Max Verstappen took over the lead from Lando Norris mid-way through the race. However, the Dutchman lost the lead and had to fall down the pecking order following a few laps. Andrea Stella pondered over the reason behind this and revealed the issue that cost Verstappen his race lead.
Stella reckoned that Verstappen used a lot of his tires while trying to catch up to Lando Norris towards the beginning of his stint. This in turn degraded his tires a lot and caused him to lose a lot of time against Norris. The Team Principal pointed out that McLaren had built a gap big enough to get a free pitstop and still remain ahead of the Dutchman in terms of pecking order on the track.
I think probably in the early stages of the race, in order to try and stay with Lando, he might have used his tyres a little too hard, and that’s why he then lost some of the pace. During the first stint, we could open a gap that was equivalent to a pit stop.
Andrea Stella explained
Regardless, McLaren remains the team to beat as the rivals still haven’t surpassed the team in terms of raw pace. Woking would have to keep up with the same if not better development throughout the season to stay in the lead. The constructors’ championship lead is currently divided between the British constructor and Mercedes. Hence, the 2025 season is set to remain extremely competitive and interesting for the fans and drivers alike. Time will tell about how McLaren will remain at the forefront and manage to keep the rivals at bay, courtesy of a superior challenger.
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