24/08/2024
NEWS STORY
McLaren boss, Andrea Stella insists that Lando Norris is world champion material despite the Briton's claims to the contrary.
Known for his self-criticism, some took it with a large pinch of salt earlier this weekend when Norris claimed he was not performing at the level of a world champion, his boss disagrees.
"In reality, I think he definitely has the potential of a world champion and he's performing at world championship level," said Stella on Friday, the Italian having previously worked with Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso.
"Lando is definitely world championship material," he added. "He performs already at levels that are seen in the past in some of the great champions I have the luck to work with. He can win world championships. That's a statement, that's capital letters."
The Italian was keen to point out that too often Norris has blamed himself for failures, whereas, in Montreal and Silverstone, the team was responsible.
"If the team had operated at higher standards then Lando would have more points in the championship," the Italian insisted. "As a team, we kind of appreciate that he puts some of the pressure on himself or he raises his hand and says it was on me, but I think I have enough experience to say 'Mate, don't worry, that's on the team, keep doing the good job, keep working to improve on your own opportunities'.
"But definitely we as a team have quite a lot of work to do as well."
Asked about the other title, that which decides the prize money and sees McLaren 42 points down on Red Bull, Stella said: "Numerically, from a driver's championship point of view, it looks like there's a big gap to fill and we are chasing Max Verstappen, so definitely he's not going to make it easy for us.
"But we are excited to be in this position, and definitely Lando is not in this position because somebody helped him. Lando is in this position because he performs very strongly, and that's something that we should acknowledge and realise."
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