McLaren concede to changes which had major impact on Lando Norris

McLaren has admitted some modifications made to MCL39 challenger at the start of the year impacted Lando Norris' form in the opening rounds of the season.

After winning the first round of the campaign, Norris found himself struggling against team-mate Oscar Piastri, who won four out of the following five grands prix.

Norris has since enjoyed a more positive run of late and currently sits nine points behind Piastri in the drivers' championship.

The Briton entered the year as the title favourite, given his experience relative to Piastri and his head-to-head record against the Australian during their first two years as team-mates.

Stella hailed the steps Piastri has taken as he acknowledged the pair have been closely matched all through the campaign.

“Lando may have a bit more experience in terms of number of races,” Stella told media including RacingNews365.

“He started the season in Australia with a strong result, but ultimately, in Australia, Oscar was there with Lando.

“Oscar lost points in Australia just because we had a sudden rain in the final part of the circuit. One of Oscar's qualities is to learn very fast, very rapidly.

“He has demonstrated it in his career, winning pretty much in first year in all the junior categories. He has demonstrated it at McLaren.

“Now we have Lando and Oscar that are driving and operating at very, very similar levels.”

The contest between the pair has been closely fought so far, with minute gaps separating them on the timesheet.

While the McLaren car is undoubtedly the fastest car in the field, Stella highlighted it hasn't been without its headaches for the drivers.

“This season, what we have to acknowledge we as a team, is that we have made some modifications to the car, to the launch version of the car that actually affected Lando's driving style,” he said.

“We made some upgrades, which actually mean that right now, some of the settings used by Lando and Oscar are slightly different.

“We are pleased that now both drivers can drive to a certain extent in a natural way, they can express their talent, and we see that they are very, very close.

“This makes it a great spectacle, certainly for F1. This is what we wanted to achieve as a team, and I think it's going to be very interesting until the end of the season.”