Lando Norris “stands together” with F1 greats like Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso

McLaren boss Andrea Stella believes Lando Norris has all the qualities needed to become F1 world champion, likening the Brit to other greats he’s worked with.

On Friday, McLaren announced Norris had signed a new multi-year deal with the team.

It now means McLaren have Norris locked in alongside Oscar Piastri until the end of 2026.

While Norris has still been unable to win in F1, his reputation has only improved year-on-year.

He dominated Daniel Ricciardo in their two years together as teammates, while Norris didn’t look out of place when McLaren finally gave him a car capable of consistently finishing on the podium in the middle of 2023.

Stella, who has worked alongside Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso in the past, thinks Norris “definitely stands with them”.

"Lando definitely stands together with them," Stella said. "It is the same category, the same kind of world championship material, the underlying talent, the mindset, the work ethos. It's all ready to go.

"But at the same time, when you think about champions, there is a characteristic of champion in that they only get better. Real champions, they seem to just improve year by year.

"And I think that's the case because they use the intelligence, the ethos, and they get the best people around them. They do whatever it takes to get better and better because the sport gets only more and more competitive."

Stella knew that Norris had the hallmarks of a champion when he first drove for the team back in 2018.

"Definitely we have all the raw material, which we saw already when Lando was doing the free practice one [sessions] with us," he said. "It was very evident in 2018.

"And then it kept growing. It's there, we just need to keep growing year after year like every champion does. But we are extremely happy and committed to Lando, in this respect."