“One quality I really like about him is that he doesn’t cry” – McLaren racing director in awe of star driver Lando Norris

Subham Jindal | 08/01/2021
"One quality I really like about him is that he doesn't cry" - McLaren racing director in awe of star driver Lando Norris

“One quality I really like about him is that he doesn’t cry” – McLaren racing director Andrea Stella is mightily impressed with Lando Norris.

Lando Norris had an impressive F1 2020 season, finishing P9 overall, just three points shy of a deserved century. This was his second season with McLaren, and we have racing director Andrea Stella highlighting the progress seen in the young driver. The former Ferrari engineer was talking to Autosport about the Brit’s growth in Formula 1.

“I think Lando is a really strong racer now. I would like to add that occasionally, he has been affected by some technical problems.”

And Lando, one quality I really like about him is that he doesn’t cry.

“He doesn’t say: ‘I had this problem and this problem, and these are the problems. I’m the best in the world. But because of this problem, I couldn’t show I’m the best.'”

“So we can definitely witness his growth as a racer. Also his consistency, capacity to stay on the targeted lap time, capacity to execute a certain stint duration to achieve the strategy that we plan, his tyre management, and so on. That’s the main things that we have been able to witness in terms of growth.”

Lando Norris growing leaps and bounds w.r.t. car feedback

One aspect of racing that separates a top driver from a decent one is the level and quality of car feedback he/she can provide to the team. One good example of it currently is Robert Kubica, the Polish veteran part of the Alfa Romeo set-up to assist in this core task of race management. Norris is no Kubica yet, but Stella is impressed with the giant steps he has taken in this direction.

“He has more awareness of himself and more awareness of the car. With his natural honesty when he started with us, very often Lando was saying: ‘I’m not doing a good enough job there. I’m not that good in that corner.’ He was very much pointing at himself.”

“So I think we helped him separate what is the car, and what is the driver. Very often the driver actually needs to be more demanding with the car rather than simply thinking I need to adapt, or I’m not doing a good enough job at that corner.”

“So he [Norris] now has more awareness of what should be driver contribution and what should be car performance. Then him being able to separate them, means his feedback has become more accurate.”

Also read: “Yesterday I lost my sense of taste and smell” – Lando Norris tests positive for Covid-19 in Dubai

Post Edited By: Subham Jindal
Lando Norris McLaren

About the author

Subham Jindal

A Red - be it Manchester United or Ferrari. Hails from the hills of Kalimpong, Darjeeling. Aspiring to become a respected Sports Management professional.

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