Motor racing-Stella hails Norris for shielding team from blame

SAKHIR, BAHRAIN: Formula One leader Lando Norris was unsparingly self-critical after suffering setbacks in Bahrain at the weekend but McLaren principal Andrea Stella said the driver was being unfair on himself and taking blame for the team.

Norris said he had been “clueless on track” after Saturday qualifying at Sakhir and, after finishing third on Sunday in a race won from pole by teammate Oscar Piastri, that he made too many mistakes.

“Every time I did one thing good, I did two bad in a way,” said the Briton, who now leads Australian Piastri by three points.

“Something’s just not clicking with me and the car. I’m not able to do any of the laps like I was doing last season.

“The car was just mega and that’s helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute. But I’m just nowhere near the capability that I have – which hurts,” he added.

Stella told reporters he admired Norris’s open approach, wearing his heart on his sleeve rather than erecting a mental screen.

“It is relatively unique how visible he is, how open he is,” said the Italian, who worked with seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher at Ferrari.

“He is quite self-critical. Other champions in the past, might go on about the problem being elsewhere. It is something important that I admire about Lando, and which makes me very privileged and lucky as team principal, that he absorbs the blame and points it at himself.

“He raises his hand, absolving the team entirely; ‘It was me, not the team.’ Which is entirely inaccurate. There were things we did that made Lando’s life less easy. We know what they were technically,” he added.

“Lando is adapting to this. We are working together to fix it. Some other drivers as soon as there is a problem; ‘Ah, the team.’ Lando does not do that.”

Stella said Norris, winner of the season-opener in Australia, had “an incredible race craft” and had simply hit a temporary phase of things not going to plan while pushing the car to its limits.

“We understand what it is, it will just require a bit of adaptation from Lando himself and some adaptations from the team, but I think the understanding is good and we are very optimistic that this will be resolved.”

Stella said McLaren always shared the blame and “we know that there’s a few things we can do better to make Lando more comfortable in the car.”

Norris conceded he was hard on himself but it was how he had always operated and it would be harder still not to show his feelings.

“When I do my interviews and whatever, a lot of it is probably just getting my frustration out. It’s just because of not achieving what I want to achieve,” he said.

“When I know what I can do and what I’m capable of, and I’m not even close to reaching that… I’m very disappointed in myself.”