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Stella: 'If McLaren had performed better, Norris would have had more points
- Jeroen Immink
Despite Max Verstappen's big lead over Lando Norris in the championship (78 points), team principal Andrea Stella does not rule his driver's chance out. The Italian believes Norris is championship material and that there is still a chance in the current season. But according to Stella, the gap already established to Verstappen is not making the chase any easier.
Gap between Verstappen and Norris largely McLaren's responsibility
In recent races, the McLaren proved to be much faster. But due to a DNF in Austria and team orders at the Hungaroring, the Briton has not moved much closer to Verstappen. According to Stella, this is not down to Norris, but to his team. "We definitely have something to clean on the start itself, which is not only driver is also team responsibility. And then I think he had a couple of situations in the races in which he might have taken some of the responsibility, but I think it was the team’s responsibility," he revealed at the press conference at Zandvoort.
"Like if I think Canada, a case in which we didn't pit Lando for the late safety car before the pit entry, or if I think about Silverstone and the final stint, that's the team’s responsibility. If the team had operated at higher standards, then Lando would have more points in the championship and definitely as a team, we kind of appreciate that he puts some of the pressure on himself or he raises his hand and says, like, 'it was on me'," the Italian added.
According to Stella, can Norris become a world champion?
When asked if Norris is ripe for a world title, Stella responded crystal clear. "So he can win world championships. That's a statement. That's capital letters. In terms of this year's championships, certainly we don't give up. 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," Stella said about that.
"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 in terms of his achievements, not only in terms of the one, two, three opportunities in a season in which he could have done better, because this is normal. And this is normal for every world champion in every season," Stella concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sarkozi
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