Why McLaren believes it can steal Verstappen's F1 championship

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has asserted his team is confident it can challenge Max Verstappen for the world championship this year.

Norris currently sits 70 points behind Verstappen in the drivers' championship and slightly ate into the Dutchman's lead following his victory at Zandvoort last weekend.

Verstappen's margin is largely due to a strong start to the season, however Red Bull's form has faltered of late with Verstappen failing to win any of the last five races.

Although he conceded the odds are not in its favour, Stella highlighted his faith in Noris' ability to close the gap.

“I do believe, I believe it because it's mathematically possible, and I believe because we have a competitive package overall,” Stella told Sky F1.

“A competitive package, for me, includes the car, includes Lando, includes the team and Oscar [Piastri].

“So I think if we achieve this result, which obviously, at the moment, looks pretty distant but not impossible, it will be because we get the most out of all these components including Oscar being part of the teamwork that is required to support Lando.”

McLaren not ready to ask Piastri to sacrifice races

Norris is currently Verstappen's closest challenger in the standings, with Piastri a further 46 points down on his team-mate.

However, Stella insisted the team is not at the point of directly asking Piastri to assist Norris in the hunt for the title.

“We have conversations every single weekend, we had this conversation [on Thursday] with each of the drivers and with the team and we will have a similar conversation on Sunday morning,” Stella said.

“You just want to be on the case and then every weekend, we will assess where we are and we will see how much will be available to accept in terms of everyone contributing.

“But it's still nine races to go and I think it would be a step too far that for nine races, we ask Oscar: ‘give up your race in favour of Lando’.

“That’s a step too far for Lando himself, because that's not the way he wants to win.

“He wants to win because he's strong on the track, competitive and then in some situations where it makes sense, then we certainly will help him.”