“But I think I have enough experience to say, 'Don't worry, that's on the team. Keep up the good work and keep trying to improve your chances.' But we certainly have a lot of work to do as a team.”
As for whether Norris can still compete with Verstappen in the title fight this year, Stella added: “He can win the World Championship. This is a statement that needs to be said in capital letters. We will never give up when it comes to this year's championship.”
Half-year report: McLaren – 2024 has been good so far, but can they learn from their mistakes and compete for the championship?
“Numbers-wise, from a drivers’ championship point of view, it looks like there is a big gap to close, and we are chasing Max Verstappen so he certainly won’t make it easy for us.
“But we are excited to be in this position. Lando is not in this position because someone helped him. Lando is in this position because he is performing very strongly. And that is something that we have to acknowledge and understand in terms of his achievements, not just that there were one, two or three chances during the season where he could have done better, because this is normal, this is normal for any world champion in any season.”
