{"id":36841,"date":"2025-08-17T16:24:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T20:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=36841"},"modified":"2025-08-17T16:24:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T20:24:15","slug":"andrea-stella-compares-piastri-and-norris-to-previous-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/17\/andrea-stella-compares-piastri-and-norris-to-previous-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrea Stella compares Piastri and Norris to previous Champions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/14\/piastri-has-scary-advantage-over-norris-says-nico-rosberg\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris<\/a> are operating at a title-winning level.<\/p>\n<p>Stella, who spent over a decade at Ferrari before joining McLaren with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/05\/alonso-bortoleto-would-get-more-praise-if-he-were-english\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Fernando Alonso<\/a> in 2015 (continuing as the Spaniard&#8217;s race engineer) has worked with several World Champions.<\/p>\n<p>From Schumacher to Alonso to Raikkonen, the Italian is no stranger to working with some of the F1 greats.<\/p>\n<p>With half of the season complete, Stella believes his drivers are more than deserving of being in the position to take the crown.<\/p>\n<h2>Stella praises Piastri and Norris&#8217; level<\/h2>\n<p>Most of the pre-season narrative heading into 2025 was focused on Lando Norris and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/16\/max-verstappen-admits-red-bull-in-rebuilding-phase\/\" target=\"_self\">Max Verstappen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With Norris representing Verstappen&#8217;s closest threat last year, he was seen as the most likely candidate to defeat the Dutchman.<\/p>\n<p>What the majority of fans and analysts did not count on, however, was Piastri to become a title contender.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"fxJi-KQWTwpE5pC0GC5wEA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2228345831\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'fxJi-KQWTwpE5pC0GC5wEA',sig:'79h6oNOwwCuEEeCkDrI0Uo3V1ah1ELJk5R1OQbeIBgM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2228345831',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Australian has made clear forward steps over the last twelve months, both in qualifying and race trim.<\/p>\n<p>Although young drivers typically progress in their first years in the paddock, Piastri&#8217;s improvements between 2024 and 2025 are particularly notable.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, it would be inaccurate to say the Australian has been significantly faster than his British teammate.<\/p>\n<p>The 9-point gap between the McLaren duo in the standings demonstrates that both drivers have missed opportunities throughout the season.<\/p>\n<p>After what has been an exceptionally close first half of the year, team principal <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/27\/andrea-stella-norris-showed-cold-blood-with-monaco-victory\/\" target=\"_self\">Andrea Stella<\/a> is full of praise for his duo:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;There is very, very little between our two drivers,&#8221; <\/em>he explained just before the summer break.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;And this is because the two drivers are racing at a very, very high level.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We are lucky at McLaren to have two drivers that deservedly are fighting for the World Championship.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Like I said before, we have two drivers&#8230; [performing at a level] that even myself in my career I&#8217;ve been close to, driving with multiple world champions.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I think Lando and Oscar are operating at that level.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;At the level of deservedly being in contention for the Drivers&#8217; World Championship.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"YOFeGibbQpJUQRm95avhVg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2227982615\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'YOFeGibbQpJUQRm95avhVg',sig:'yn6Wb_idZEd4Ok21OPy8HuldmNJq0QB1BHt7fzWiwm0=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2227982615',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>A golden opportunity<\/h4>\n<p>Of course, it is not necessarily a surprise to see a team principal complimenting their own drivers.<\/p>\n<p>Stella, for obvious reasons, wants to praise <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/01\/06\/oscar-piastri-demands-more-from-himself-in-2025\/\" target=\"_self\">Piastri<\/a> and Norris as much as possible &#8211; so whoever emerges with the crown is seen as deserving.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian team principal also wants to ensure that neither of his duo are seen as receiving preferential treatment.<\/p>\n<p>With Max Verstappen no longer a realistic title challenger, McLaren can let their drivers race with relatively little risk.<\/p>\n<p>Even in the even of a race-ending incident, the papaya team <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/author\/jadendiazndisang\/\" target=\"_self\">should still claim both Championships with ease<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Then again, it should always be noted that internal dynamics within a team can change.<\/p>\n<p>For now, both drivers appear on relatively good terms &#8211; and neither has conducted themselves on track in a way to spark a response from the team.<\/p>\n<p>The only incident between Piastri and Norris this year was in Canada &#8211; where Norris paid the price for his own mistake, and therefore taking away the headache McLaren would have faced in the aftermath.<\/p>\n<p>Still, there is always the possibility that &#8211; as the season continues &#8211; one incident could disrupt McLaren&#8217;s harmony.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo: Joe Portlock\/Getty Images (via McLaren media gallery)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are operating at a title-winning level. Stella, who spent over a decade at Ferrari before joining McLaren with Fernando Alonso in 2015 (continuing as the Spaniard&#8217;s race engineer) has worked with several World Champions. From Schumacher to Alonso to Raikkonen, the Italian is no [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":36842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2452,444,66,1569],"class_list":["post-36841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-lando-norris","tag-mclaren","tag-oscar-piastri"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36841"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36861,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36841\/revisions\/36861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}