Andrea Stella backs Lando Norris and targets rivals: “We’re working to improve the MCL39 over one lap”. Andrea Stella defends Lando Norris after Imola qualifying.

Piastri on top, Lando behind
Qualifying for the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola confirmed the trend seen in the early races of the season: a dominant McLaren, with only Verstappen and Russell consistently able to challenge the papaya team, and Oscar Piastri proving more effective than Lando Norris in the intra-team battle at Woking.

On the spectacular Imola circuit, it was Oscar Piastri who took pole position, narrowly beating Max Verstappen by just 34 thousandths, while Lando Norris disappointed by finishing only fourth in Q3, behind even George Russell’s Mercedes. Everything seems to be going wrong lately for the British driver, but McLaren team principal Andrea Stella came to his defense, always keen to maintain a healthy atmosphere within the team.

“We’re in Imola and now everyone is pointing out that Lando is in P4,” said the Italian manager while speaking to journalists after qualifying. “But if we go back just one race, who was in P4 in Miami [in qualifying]? It was Oscar, but I don’t think there was much talk about the fact he was P4 — and he ended up winning the race. That’s the mindset we have today with Lando.”

A drive to improve
As for Oscar Piastri, Andrea Stella wanted to highlight the significant step forward made by the Australian in terms of performance compared to last year, especially in qualifying: “I believe Oscar has some traits that are partly natural and partly developed throughout his career, including recently. I think the main step Oscar has made, even compared to last season, is in sheer speed,” said Andrea Stella. “He’s simply a faster driver. That doesn’t mean, as I said before, that he can’t also find himself in off-pace situations like in Miami qualifying.”

Finally, since the McLaren’s weak spot — or rather, its “less strong” area — seems to be single-lap pace, the Woking team boss announced developments that could make rivals nervous: “I think as a team we have some aspects of the car to improve,” Andrea Stella concluded. “We identified them almost immediately during testing, with the aim of making the car easier to drive at the limit in qualifying. That will be an advantage for both Oscar and Lando.”