Lando Norris traits highlighted where 'he has improved the most'

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has highlighted two of the key areas where he feels Lando Norris has improved significantly after thrusting himself back into the picture for this season's F1 drivers' title.

Following a major upgrade on the MCL40 ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Norris has ended his winless drought with back-to-back victories either side of the summer break at the Hungaroring and Zandvoort.

From barely being mentioned as a title contender, Norris is back in the conversation, albeit the Briton still faces a considerable task if he is to retain his championship as he currently trails leader Kimi Antonelli by 83 points.

From Stella's perspective, however, he has enjoyed a different side to Norris of late, in particular after he gave himself a rare pat on the back for his part in achieving victory in the Dutch Grand Prix. Ordinarily, he has been quick to self-criticise.

One of the highlights of Norris' performance was his pass on Antonelli around the outside of Turn 1, notably with Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also in the equation.

"I would say he is definitely expressing a higher level of assertiveness as he drives," said Stella, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365. "The manoeuvre to pass Antonelli was a really good demonstration of that.

"He is demonstrating more self-confidence, and with self-confidence, it is interesting, and I quite like it.

"Sometimes, self-confidence is not demonstrated by being the most aggressive. Sometimes you are self-confident when you think, 'You know what? I'm not going to fight now because I might lose this fight. It's a very long race. See you at the end of the race'.

"It's this confidence in your means, in your strength that I quite like, which means that sometimes you are the one backing off when the situation becomes too risky. So I do see the self-confidence.

"We need to remember that in both of the last couple of races that he won, he didn't defend the pole position. He was actually second at the end of the first lap.

"But I did not perceive any decay in his confidence. Instead, he was fast and just preparing his opportunity to then cash in on his competitiveness.

"So I think assertiveness and confidence are probably the two characteristics where he has improved the most from a non-technical, non-operational point of view."

Next up for McLaren and Norris is the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on September 6.