McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri offered their perspectives on Andrea Stella’s assessment of their respective “superpowers” ahead of the 2026 F1 Mexico City GP.
Speaking after the United States GP in Austin, McLaren team principal Stella had highlighted what he considered to be the respective strengths of his two drivers, suggesting that Piastri excelled at building on established references while Norris showed greater adaptability. The comments were put to both McLaren drivers during Thursday’s media day ahead of the Mexico City GP.
Asked whether he thought those were apt descriptions, Norris replied, “Yeah, first point, I don’t know. Sometimes I believe these kinds of things, like it suits one person more than the other. Sometimes I don’t.
“There’s been plenty of slightly low-grip tracks when Oscar’s beaten me, and I’ve struggled, and he’s beaten me also on very high-grip tracks. Maybe at times you can see a little bit of a trend, but I don’t see that so much.”
He continued: “But I know one of his strengths in general is very much being able to repeat things and being insanely consistent.
“I look at his data over 10 laps, you can barely see what the difference is over 10 laps. If you look at my data over 10 laps, you’d probably laugh, and you’d think, ‘what the hell is going on with this guy?’ But that’s just the difference in our ways, and I feel like I’m very active, very alive in my driving.”
Norris on his strengths as an F1 driver
The Brit acknowledged that consistency remained one of his McLaren teammate’s strongest attributes, while also discussing his own strengths ahead of the Mexico City GP.
“I’m able to adapt from corner to corner, and even within a corner at times,” Norris said.
“And that seems to maybe suit this car more, but it’s not something I’ve always been. That’s something I’ve had to work on a lot this season.
“I certainly didn’t start this year understanding that very well, but I work very well with my team on trying different things and working towards this driving style and putting in the effort to adapt to it. So, it’s hard to know if it suits one or suits the other. At the end of the day, you’ve just got to drive what you get given.”
Piastri explains 2026 McLaren challenge ahead of Mexico City GP
Piastri was similarly reluctant to accept Stella’s characterisation as a complete explanation of the differences between the teammates.
“I wouldn’t say quite as simple as that,” the McLaren driver told the media ahead of the Mexico City GP.
Piastri, who had a very strong 2025, leading the championship standings in the first half of the season, has noticeably struggled with the new-gen McLaren car this year.
He explained this, saying, “I think what is very challenging with this year’s car is it needs to be driven on the limit all the time.
“And when you’re building up to that through practice, as the grip level changes, the risk you take changes, it’s not always a very linear thing, and I think that’s where the strength of having that approach works very well.
“If it is a linear approach, you can build up very nicely, to be nice and consistent, especially when it counts. When you have to put the car on the limit to actually find out what exactly it does, that’s when it gets quite tricky because trying to find them in the first place can be very tough, so it’s definitely something I’ve been working on a lot.
“I think there’s been signs of progress with that, but it’s just taking longer.”
