29/07/2025 06:30
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella feels "execution" will be crucial
in determining which of his drivers is crowned F1 champion this
season. After another one-two between Oscar Piastri and Lando
Norris, the duo's third in a row, sixth this season, and first for
McLaren in Belgium since 1999, the title fight is fast becoming a
two-horse race. Piastri's victory over Norris at the
Spa-Francorchamps circuit means the Australian holds a 16-point
cushion over his team-mate going into this weekend's race in
Budapest, the last before F1's summer shutdown. The challenge of
their nearest rival, four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen, is
fading, with the Red Bull driver 81 points adrift of Piastri. With
the title scenario zeroing in Piastri and Norris, Stella knows the
margins are fine. Speaking to the media, and asked by
RacingNews365 what would be the deciding factor as to who will be
crowned champion, Stella said: "There is very, very little between
our two drivers, and this is because they are racing at a very,
very high level. "We are lucky at McLaren to have two drivers who
are deservedly fighting for the world championship. I think the
difference will be made by the accuracy, the precision, the quality
of the execution. "We saw in Silverstone that a sporting issue for
Oscar during the safety car restart, and the consequent penalty
costing him the race. "Related to the circuit characteristic [at
Spa], we said it would have always been very difficult for Lando to
keep the position, starting first, at the safety car restart. At
the same time, Lando didn't help himself by not having a great gap
on the finish line. "So the execution is what is going to make the
main difference. "We, as a team, will try and make sure that from a
reliability point of view, from a team operation point of view,
that we are as good as possible, such that it will be the drivers
deciding their own outcome in terms of competing for the drivers'
world championship.' Fans denied 'interesting battle' At Spa on
Sunday, following the first four laps behind the safety car,
Piastri conjured a superb move on Norris along the Kemmel Straight
after bravely and almost blindly following the Briton through Eau
Rouge in the spray, given the wet conditions. Piastri then pitted
first for slicks, taking on the medium compound after lap 11.
Whilst Stella confirmed the double-stack was considered, Norris
opted for an extra lap and switched to the hard tyres, even if it
allowed Piastri a greater time advantage on track, from two seconds
pre-stop, to nine after. Norris slowly started to reel in his
team-mate, but three small errors - one at Pouhon, and two out of
the La Source hairpin - cost him. Without those, whether he would
have even had an opportunity to overtake is debatable. Stella,
though, could not fault Norris overall, given the circumstances. He
said: "Lando had a couple of lockups in corner one, and also a
little oversteer in corner nine, that cost him time. Overall, this
prevented us from having an interesting battle, possibly at the
end. "In fairness, even Oscar, a couple of times in corner one, had
a little bit of a time loss. It's very difficult when you push so
much in these conditions, and to always drive within the limit of
the grip. "It's also not easy to always keep the car on the racing
line where you have the maximum grip, considering that away from
it, you can lose it very rapidly because of the track still being a
little damp."
