McLaren send ominous Lando Norris warning

Andrea Stella believes Lando Norris is getting "stronger and stronger" as he grows into his F1 drivers' title defence after the reigning champion took a commanding victory at the Dutch Grand Prix.

The British driver went back-to-back by storming to a superb triumph at Zandvoort, finishing over 11 seconds clear of standings leader Kimi Antonelli, a result that was far from a certainty after McLaren's sprint showing on Saturday suggested the MCL40 lacked the pace to fight at the front.

McLaren turned things around overnight, but the 26-year-old taking his car to victory regardless left Stella in no doubt about the level his driver is currently operating at.

"Lando is driving and operating at a very high level in an absolute sense, in relation to Formula 1... I think he is driving at the level of the world champion," the McLaren team principal told media, including RacingNews365. "And like I always say, for Lando, what I like the most about his journey in Formula 1 is that he keeps improving."

Stella pointed to the start of the 2025 season as a turning point for Norris. Though he went on to clinch his maiden crown by just two points over Max Verstappen, the campaign was far from straightforward, with Norris having to dig deep and draw upon new approaches to grand prix weekends to remedy his early-season setbacks, like taking the delta time off his steering wheel in qualifying.

That process, to Stella, has carried over and accelerated into this year, where Norris has overcome McLaren's difficult opening to the year to score 101 of his 159 points across the last six rounds, and has been considered a standout performer throughout despite his poor luck from a reliability perspective.

"Especially after the start of the 2025 season, something clicked, which is not only a single click, but it is a way of working with Lando, for Lando, and that we are adopting also on Oscar's side, now in particular. I think this approach has led Lando to continuous improvements," Stella said.

Despite sitting 83 points adrift of Antonelli after McLaren's troubled start to the new regulations, Norris is on the right trajectory this campaign and is now the second favourite for the title, according to bookmakers.

Stella acknowledged that Zandvoort, where McLaren struggled for rear grip in the sprint, was no walkover, while also noting that Oscar Piastri's second-stint tyre difficulties in the grand prix remain an unresolved concern.

"So it's almost like I see Lando [getting] stronger and stronger race by race, because I think Zandvoort was nowhere near a weekend in which we could take fighting for the victory for granted, especially after having seen the performance in the sprint," the Italian added.

"But we invested in trying to understand where the opportunity was from a tyre exploitation point of view and car improvement.

"I think both drivers improved from this point of view, but unfortunately, the question mark remains as to the [tyre] behaviour of Oscar's second stint.

"So I think there's overall a positive trajectory for both, but at the moment Lando is capable of maximising the performance in qualifying trim; if we think back to the start of 2025, this had become a bit of a concern that he overcame.

"And then I think when you have conditions in which the car slides in the race, there's not much grip. Then I think he is the master in these kinds of conditions."