Stella praises Norris' mentality: "It's quite unique how open he is."

McLaren leaves to attend to his pilot's bedside. In Bahrain, Lando Norris did not have its best weekend: despite a very high-performance MCL39 on the Sakhir circuit – with pole position and victory in full control ofOscar piastri – the Briton suffered with his mount, both in qualifying and in the race.

On Saturday, when he was rightfully expected to be at the top of the list, the 25-year-old driver disappointed with a lackluster 6th place on the grid. The next day, the Englishman made a series of errors, sometimes small, sometimes gross, as on the starting grid, where he strangely overshot his position before the lights went out. Although he managed to climb back up to 3rd place, barely overtaking the Ferrari, Lando Norris was unable to get rid of George Russell, who was nevertheless handicapped by numerous problems on his Mercedes.

After the race, the dejected Briton could only acknowledge his mistakes and his defeat against Oscar Piastri. “I qualified 6th on Saturday, which is frankly bad, so how can I be happy? It doesn’t make sense, he said at a press conference. Of course, I'm a little bit happier to have come back up to 3rd place. I had a good start and 2nd place was the best possible result [on Sunday], so we should have had it. But we didn't have it, I didn't have it, because of a few mistakes. So I have mixed feelings. I think the pace was good, the car is clearly amazing, as Oscar proved, but I made too many mistakes.

« Others might have said that the problem was elsewhere."

A severe and even quite rare self-criticism coming from a pilot of Formula 1A mentality that his team director, Andrea Stella, appreciates. “It’s quite unique how open he is, underlines the Italian leaderHe's very critical of himself. Other champions in the past might have said the problem lay elsewhere. That's one big thing I admire about Lando, and one that makes me privileged and lucky as a team principal, that he takes the blame and owns up to being guilty."

"He takes responsibility and completely absolves the team by saying, 'It's me, not the team.' Which is completely inaccurate, says the McLaren Team PrincipalWe've done things that have made Lando's life less easy. We know what it's like technically. Lando adapts to this situation. We work together to solve the problem. Other drivers, as soon as there's a problem, say, 'Ah, it's the team,' which is not the case for him. Lando doesn't do that.

Since the start of the season, Lando Norris has been suffering from a temperamental rear end, which he has struggled to tame. On the other hand, Oscar Piastri seems to have adapted better to the MCL39, and even if the Briton is still leading the championship after the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Australian seems to have gained the psychological upper hand over his teammate. For Andrea Stella, it is only a matter of time before Lando Norris feels comfortable aboard the car orange.

"We understand what it is, it will require a little bit of adaptation from Lando himself and some adaptation from the team, but I think the understanding is good and we are very optimistic about resolving this issue, He said. We know there are some things we can improve to make Lando more comfortable in the car."

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