Andrea Stella explains McLaren’s decision to drop Lando Norris’ penalty ahead of the 2025 Mexico GP. Andrea Stella on McLaren’s decision to drop Norris’ penalty ahead of the Mexico GP.

The discussion has returned to Lando Norris’ aggressive move on the opening lap of the Singapore GP, which had resulted in an internal penalty for the British driver. In a recent interview, Andrea Stella confirmed Oscar Piastri’s remarks that the consequences for Norris have been lifted ahead of the Mexico GP.

Andrea Stella’s comments

Andrea Stella explained that the decision was driven by the need to respond swiftly to Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s pressure: “As always, we analyze situations openly and constructively with the team and drivers,” he told the media in Mexico. “We thought the best way to move forward was to start from scratch and focus on a single objective: ensuring the championship stays papaya-colored. Everything else is less important, and someone is gaining momentum. Our mission is to stop that momentum and bring it back to the papaya side.”

Andrea Stella also confirmed that McLaren will not attempt to match Red Bull in terms of upgrades. While the Milton Keynes team continues to introduce modifications — including updates to the floor and side wing of the RB21 — McLaren decided to halt development on the MCL39 some time ago. “The 2026 project would be severely compromised if we continued to upgrade the current car,” Andrea Stella explained. “We want to win championships in the future, and to do that, we need a competitive car. I believe we were very careful with the timing of shifting our resources to 2026.

“Adding even a single point of aerodynamic efficiency would take weeks, because we are now at a plateau in development. With the 2026 car, however, every week we gain significant aerodynamic downforce. We had reached diminishing returns and needed to be realistic, redirecting our attention to 2026.”