Andrea Stella calls for calm in McLaren camp as championship fight tightens

Andrea Stella has urged Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to remain calm as Max Verstappen closes in on the McLaren pair in the world championship fight.

Verstappen completed a perfect weekend at the Circuit of the Americas by easing to victory in Sunday’s race after also winning Saturday’s sprint – where Piastri and Norris collided and were both dumped out.

The Dutchman’s pursuit of a fifth successive title appeared all-but over when he left Zandvoort just five races ago with a 104-point deficit to leader Piastri.

While McLaren have not won since, Verstappen has racked up three victories and slashed Piastri’s advantage down to 40 points – with Norris sitting second having closed the gap on his team-mate to 14 points with his second placed-finish in Austin.

There are five rounds of the championship remaining and 141 points still to fight for and Stella – who won titles as performance engineer of both Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari – does not want his drivers to dwell on the threat of Verstappen.

“First of all, I need to keep myself calm,” Stella said.

“What we are facing in this moment, which is a tight competition to win races, a tight competition in the quest for the drivers’ championship, is what Formula One is about.

“If anything, it was anomalous when we were doing easily. That’s not what Formula One is about. It’s a process of getting used to this kind of pressure, which we want to live with maximum intensity and minimum stress.

“We don’t want to lose the joy of doing what we do. We just want to make sure that we put ourselves in the state in which we perform at our best, which also includes keeping having fun and recognising that ultimately it’s quite a big privilege to be in this situation.

“So what we do in the future is very easy. We keep doing the good work and the results will take care of themselves.”

Verstappen has finished ahead of the McLaren pair at each of the last four races, while Piastri has not beaten either of his title rivals since his win in Zandvoort.

Stella knows only too well how Raikkonen won his title in 2007 – with the Finn winning three of the last four races to pip squabbling McLaren pair Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to the crown by a single point.

The Italian would not rule out the need to favour one of his drivers should Verstappen’s challenge continue.

“When it comes to having to make a call as to a driver, this will only be led by mathematics,” he added.

“You know, we talked before about the experience and leaning on the experience, I can recall at least 2007, 2010, in which you go to the last race and it’s actually the third that wins the championship.

“So we’re not going to close the door unless this is closed by mathematics.”