McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella has claimed the team needs “to make sure that we stay focused” despite a dominant victory for Lando Norris in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, and that the Briton “doesn’t own” the 2025 Drivers’ Championship yet despite a healthy points lead.
Norris’ victory in Brazil was his seventh of the campaign and leaves him 24 and 49 points ahead of team mate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen respectively, with just 83 points remaining across three Grands Prix and one Sprint.
Norris has taken back-to-back wins and a further two podiums in the last four Grands Prix, in stark contract to Piastri who has not reached the rostrum since Monza back in September.
Although Norris claimed a largely unchallenged win on Sunday, having started from pole and led all but 12 laps during the pit stop sequence, Stella admitted that the team were taking it race-by-race despite the Briton seemingly with one hand on the title.
“For me, the only way I look at the classification is to go one race at a time and make sure that we maximise the points we score,” said Stella.
“Honestly, while it could be a good exercise to talk about Formula 1, which is fair, to look at the combination is now a championship that Lando owns, he doesn’t own.
“It’s so academic. From a driver’s point of view, team point of view, we just have to make sure that we stay focused on ourselves and focus on executing weekends like Lando has executed here in Brazil or in Mexico.
“And for instance, with Oscar, make sure that our opportunities are capitalised. Honestly, when it comes to the points, we will take a look at the end of Vegas and we will see where we are. And likewise, after Qatar and Abu Dhabi.”
While Norris claimed victory by 10 seconds from Kimi Antonelli, Verstappen finished just behind and showed strong pace after a pit lane start, and even led at one point prior to making his final pit stop.
Stella admitted McLaren were glad that Verstappen made the late pit stop, allowing Norris back into the lead without a fight, and that the four-time World Champion showed he and Red Bull will remain a threat for the remainder of the season.
“First of all, I was hoping [Verstappen would pit] because it made our life a little bit easier!” he said.
“But jokes apart, today the level of degradation was very high. And at some stage, I think the tyres just ran out of rubber. I think they knew at Red Bull that it would have been a quite significant gamble to go to the end with the same set.
“And considering the fact that they had a new soft to put on, I think that was the right thing to do. And I think staying on the point of Red Bull, today they definitely took advantage of having new tyres, new medium, new soft.
“But at the same time, they showed a performance and a pace in the race that is meaningful that without the situation yesterday in Qualifying, I think Verstappen would have been there for the victory.”
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