After the F1 2026 Hungarian GP, McLaren’s Team Principal Andrea Stella shared his thoughts on what helped Lando Norris claim his first win as world champion.
The last race before the mid-season break was a chaotic one. Particularly in the McLaren garage, the team dealt with polar-opposite stories after Sunday. Norris had qualified P1 and was able to cross the finish line up front for the first time in 2026. On the other side, Piastri had a great start, but lost the possibility of a win as backmarker Carlos Sainz hit him on lap 39, and he finally retired 17 tours later with a suspected gearbox failure.
“He’s also more in control of his emotions”: Stella on Norris’ evolution
During a print media session, McLaren’s team principal Andrea Stella spoke about how impressed he was by Lando Norris’ performance in the F1 2026 Hungarian GP.
“I mentioned a little bit this yesterday. For me, I’ve been quite impressed by Lando following the way he has reacted to the first one third of the season last year,” answered Stella.
“There were highs and lows, some difficulties. There were clear learning points to review and learn from. And he embraced the challenge of doing so.”
Last year, Norris fought for his championship after a difficult start. The Brit had struggled throughout the first half of the season, making mistakes and facing unlucky obstacles, while teammate Oscar Piastri comfortably led the championship. Yet, Norris finally turned the fight around, as he gathered consistent results and was able to claim the 2025 drivers championship title.
“So he worked himself, the first person. The group of engineers around him. All the entourage. It was great work of development from a personal and a driving point of view.”
Stella concluded: “So I think what we see here is just the continuation of this trajectory.
“Lando is much more confident. I think he’s much more aware of his tools that he has in his driving. How to deploy these tools.”
The Team Principal also admitted: “And I think he’s also, let me say, more in control of his emotions.
“Because today, when he was behind Oscar, he said a couple of times that he had pace in hand. But he didn’t get overly frustrated. And the fact that he wasn’t overly frustrated, I think, then allowed him to use the pace at the right time. And lead him to the victory.
“So I think we’ve seen a great trajectory of development for Lando.”
“We will see a very strong Oscar”, predicts Stella for the second part of the F1 2026 season
Additionally, Andrea Stella mentioned that he saw the same growth in Oscar Piastri: “And this is honestly the same with Oscar as well”.
While he dominated the first half of 2025, the Australian driver is still trying to get used to the new cars in 2026, struggling somewhat with less downforce and grip that these cars generate versus the last campaign. Currently, he holds 92 points and sits P7 in the Drivers’ Championship, two positions behind Norris in 5th, after multiple DNS and DNFs throughout the season.
“Oscar is still getting in tune with these 2026 cars, low-grip cars. And there’s an opportunity there to find some pace.
“And there’s great work happening between Oscar, his engineering team and the wider team of Oscar.”
Stella warned: “So I think we will see a very strong Oscar for the second part of the season.”
