McLaren team principal feels the poor starts of Lando Norris “are not his fault”. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella reacts to the impact of Lando Norris' poor starts .

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has downplayed the impact of Lando Norris’ poor starts on the team’s championship points in the title fight. The British driver has lost positions multiple times during the first lap this season when starting from pole position. This unfortunate streak finally ended in the Singapore Grand Prix, where he maintained the lead at the end of the first lap. Andrea Stella stated that McLaren has thoroughly reviewed the early part of the season and concluded that Lando Norris couldn’t have done much better.

“I’m not disagreeing that, at first glance, the starts and the general approach to the first corner of the opening lap might have represented an opportunity for Lando,” he said. “But after doing some analysis as a group, including Lando, we reviewed the entire season, every single start, and every single first lap. And to be honest, we didn’t find that, even in the cases where Lando started from pole and wasn’t leading at the end of the first lap, he had given up much in terms of performance. We looked back at Barcelona and thought that George Russell would have been in P1 even if Lando had tried something different.” – the former Ferrari race engineer pointed out.

Andrea Stella acknowledged that the issue in the Dutch Grand Prix, where both McLaren drivers lost a position, was due to a team decision. “There were some opportunities in terms of start execution, but we recognized that this was also on the team’s side,” he said. “For example, I think at Zandvoort, where both cars had old tires due to a team-related setup issue, and both cars didn’t have a good start. So, even though at first glance it seemed like Lando had a significant opportunity there, the facts weren’t so clear. But we’ve certainly focused on start execution and tire preparation. Lando himself, and even the time we dedicate to start preparation during a race weekend, is now more focused.” – he explained.

Andrea Stella added that Lando Norris is now more accustomed to starting from pole position: “You gain confidence, become more familiar with starting from pole, and understand, even in terms of defending your position, what needs to be done to deter others from attacking. So I think this is part of the growth process, and it’s simply positive that we now have to deal with these kinds of opportunities.” – the McLaren team principal concluded.