McLaren team boss Andrea Stella beams after the Austria-Grand Prix 2025 in Spielberg to both ears. This is no wonder either: Lando Norris and Oscar Piatri have achieved a sovereign and never endangered double victory at the Red Bull Ring. And: McLaren did not have to intervene in the racing from the outside – a stable director was not necessary.
That is why Stella is “very proud of how Lando and Oscar drove today” and says: “This is pretty much what we want to see as a team. We are here to run.” And that in the context of the in-house rules of the game, which have become known as “papaya rules”.
Stella explains: “We want to give our two drivers the opportunity to show their talent and achieve their goals, but this must happen in the context of the principles and the approach that we have built up together with them. And I think that’s exactly what happened today.”
Only once is it really tight between Norris and Piatri
On the track, Norris and Piatri had a hard duel for the lead, especially in the first races. Piatri attacked his teammate several times, but there was no (continuing) change of position.
“Of course these are stressful moments, but we trust Oscar and Lando,” says Stella. “For us it was clear: the boys should both have the chance to win the race – as long as they do it like today. It’s great, a spectacle for Formula 1. We are happy that we were able to entertain our fans, our viewers, and we look forward to further races.”
But it almost went wrong: Once Piatri tried a maneuver at the beginning of curve 4, but withdrew at the last moment and promptly braked. Immediately there was a “small hint” from the McLaren command stand to refrain from henceforth. “Oscar then accepted that directly,” says Stella.
“I am proud of him again because he said immediately after the target flag that he sorry for this maneuver. He went a little too far. It is not easy to say.”
First Norris in Canada, now Piatri in Austria
Especially since there was only a collision between the McLaren teammates at the last race in Canada: Norris had misjudged Piatri in the position struggle and had driven his McLaren sister car into the rear.
However, according to Stella, this scene was “really harmless” because it was simply a “misjudgment of the distance” on the part of Norris. “And the result was unhappy because Lando did not end the race.”
But it was not just a pure driving error from Norris, emphasizes Stella: “There was also a Derating of the MGU-K in Oscar’s car, which made the rapprochement speed even higher than Lando expected. So it was simply an unfortunate incident. But neither of them wanted to let the muscles play. That was important.”
Stella is happy about the culture of responsibility at McLaren
Where Piatri took responsibility for the almost incident in Austria, Norris launched his hand in Canada. “That’s exactly what we want to see,” says Stella.
He feels confirmed in his approach as a McLaren team manager: “We started a process in Canada, which was based on good conversations and to ensure that we are even more united and more out of it. So you grow as a team.”
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But Stella is aware that “not always everything is going well and will not always be pleasant”. Incidents cannot be completely excluded in Formula 1. “But even out of unpleasant events, you have to find a chance to grow and continue even more closed. And that is exactly what happened to Canada,” says Stella.
Praise for Norris after its counterattack in the World Cup
Stella is correspondingly satisfied with how Norris reacted to the slump from two weeks ago: Norris dominated the race weekend in Spielberg with pole position and the Grand Prix victory.
“The speed is there. We only have to improve a few things in the execution, and then the results come,” explains McLaren team boss Stella. “This is exactly what Lando demonstrated here in Austria.”
Stella does not yet look at the destination
And so it remains very closely in the Formula 1 driver classification: Piatri now leads with 216 points ahead of Norris with 201 points. Max Verstappen in the Red Bull is already 61 points behind the top after his failure in Spielberg.
However, Stella does not want to leave anything to chance: “We have to look with both drivers of races. We have to ensure in every single race that we maximize the potential that we stay in the race and drive against each other, as we have made it. And then we will see in Abu Dhabi what comes out.”
But now it would be anything but a World Cup profit from McLaren a big surprise.