McLaren boss Andrea Stella claims Lando Norris now “exploits the potential of the car to a greater extent” amid his second place in Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.
Norris has continued to spearhead McLaren’s charge as the team has maintained the momentum it built up during last term to return to being a front-running fixture.
The Briton converted fourth on the grid in Shanghai last weekend into a surprise second-place finish, adding to his earlier podium behind the two Ferraris in Australia.
Norris had admitted coming into the season that he had been working on his mental approach to avoid the errors that he was making in crucial moments over one lap.
He has since out-qualified team-mate Oscar Piastri at all but one of the first five rounds and took a commanding pole position for the Sprint in China in wet conditions.
Stella has lavished praise on Norris, who penned a multi-term extension with McLaren, for the work he has put in to ensure that he capitalises on golden opportunities.
“I think what Lando has done this year, he has been able to capitalize on a lot of points and opportunities that we identified last year,” Stella explained to Autosport.
“For instance, one is qualifying performance. How do you put together clean laps in qualifying.
“Last year, he was quick we have had several situations like in Qatar when he could have been in pole position and had both laps in Q3 deleted.
“Like there was a lot to take from there and from some other situations.
“So, he has done a really good job of working on the opportunities together with his engineers and the support of the factory.
“And make some small adaptations to be able to exploit the potential of the car to a greater extent. So, this is credit to him.
Stella has noted how Norris has also made advances with race management in the nascent stages of 2024 when it comes to anticipating the behaviour of the rubber.
Norris, 24, was able to execute an extended first stint in Shanghai to counter a potential Ferrari strategic option and also gain track position on Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
He added: “And I think also in the race he seems to become, I would say more and more consistent and more and more capable of understanding what is going on with the tyres, which axle is going, how long can these tyres go. It’s just what normally we call the race craft, which is becoming larger, and more accurate.”
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