‘Lando Norris’ speed can compete with Michael Schumacher or Fernando Alonso’

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella insists the “natural speed” of the prodigiously gifted Norris is comparable to the two icons of the sport, who have nine championships between them.

Norris enters this weekend’s F1 Mexico City Grand Prix in fine form, stringing together four podium finishes as McLaren established themselves as Red Bull’s closest contenders.

“I think the ingredients for Lando to be able to succeed, like these drivers have been able to succeed, are coming together,” Stella told the Beyond The Grid podcast. 

“When it is about natural speed, I think Lando can compete with some of these big names like Schumacher or Fernando Alonso.

“The real success factor is in making the race craft bigger and bigger, creating as much as possible adaptability, because you're never going to have the perfect car. You're never going to have the perfect situation. It can happen.

“We want to succeed even when there's a 50/50 probability to do that, then you want to make the difference through your continuous improvement, adaptability, understanding the situation better than your competitors, and gaining a competitive advantage.

“Definitely Lando is on a very strong path from this point of view, and I think the evidence is that as soon as we gave him a car that was able to compete for podiums, he just achieved it.

“He's clearly there. I think if anything, it’s more on us now to give him the machinery to be able to capitalise on his own qualities.”

Stella identified Norris’ key attributes: “First of all, Lando gives you the characteristic, like some other top drivers that I was lucky enough to work with, that their perception of time is zoomed in very much.

“He talks about what happens in half a second like it happened in one hour. The capacity to perceive and isolate all the little things that happen from his point of view as a driver, or from what's happening with the car, is pretty impressive.”