Lando Norris’s championship possibilities by no means recovered from the setback they suffered early within the season when McLaren’s automobile was much less aggressive, says crew principal Andrea Stella.
Max Verstappen clinched the title in Las Vegas final weekend with two rounds to spare, having constructed up a 63-point lead over Norris, his closest championship rival.
Norris misplaced 53 factors to Verstappen over the primary six rounds alone. McLaren launched a major improve for the MCL38 at that spherical in Miami, the place Norris claimed the primary victory of his profession. Regardless of closing to inside 44 factors of Verstappen at one stage, he was unable to forestall his rival taking the championship.
Stella praised Verstappen, saying he deserves a spot amongst F1’s best champions. “He’s a incredible driver, top-of-the-line within the historical past of Formulation 1,” the McLaren boss advised Viaplay.
“He’s been so constant this season, even when the automobile wasn’t the perfect automobile. A really deserved champion in 2024 in Max Verstappen. Congratulations to him and congratulations to Crimson Bull who supported Max on this quest.”
However Stella believes each his drivers have the potential to win the championship sooner or later, if their automobile is aggressive sufficient throughout the entire season.
“We’re proud that we tried to contend the championship with Lando. We tried till we might. We misplaced too many factors at the beginning of the season as a result of the automobile wasn’t aggressive sufficient.”
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Norris has scored factors in each grand prix this 12 months aside from on the Crimson Bull Ring, the place he was categorized twentieth after stopping within the pits with harm following a collision with Verstappen. His next-lowest end, eighth place, got here on the second spherical in Jeddah.
“After we obtained in with aggressive materials from a automobile standpoint, really, we stayed on the same trajectory as Max, confirming that we have now the fabric that may compete for the drivers’ world championship within the automobile,” Stella continued.
“Above all, we have now a driver that may compete for the drivers’ world championship in Lando, and positively sooner or later in Oscar [Piastri].”
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