Lando Norris has the look of a driver who’s got the title scent in his visor foam. The McLaren man kissed the P1 trophy in São Paulo after sweeping Brazil’s Sprint weekend, and with it he prised open a 24-point cushion over Oscar Piastri. But if you’re expecting Andrea Stella to join the coronation choir, think again.
“It’s academic,” McLaren’s team principal shrugged when asked whether Norris now “owns” the championship. The word hung there like cigarette smoke. He wasn’t being coy so much as relentlessly practical. “One race at a time,” he added, insisting the only job is to keep executing weekends like Mexico and Brazil, and to ensure Piastri “capitalises” when the door is ajar.
This title fight has been a pendulum. Norris struck first in Australia while Piastri slipped on a wet Sunday to ninth, then the Australian hit back hard with victory in Saudi Arabia — one of seven grands prix wins that put him in control through mid-season. The big swing came at Zandvoort, where an engine failure cost Norris a likely second place as Piastri won and banked a 34-point lead. From there? The tide turned again. A ragged spell from Azerbaijan to Brazil without a podium bled Piastri’s margin, just as Norris rediscovered his early-season precision.
Mexico gave Norris the championship lead by a single point. Brazil turned a margin into a buffer: two poles, two wins, and a statement. With three race weekends left and a maximum of 83 points still to grab, McLaren remains on course for a 1–2 in the standings unless Max Verstappen mounts a late charge. The Red Bull driver sits 49 points off Norris, the only non-McLaren still in the hunt.
That’s why Las Vegas could be the breakpoint. Depending on how the chips fall on the Strip, Verstappen’s last mathematical lifeline may snap. Even then, you won’t hear any belts-loosened chatter from Woking. Stella’s keeping the eyes down and the throttle steady.
“From a driver’s point of view, team point of view, we just have to make sure we stay focused on ourselves,” he said. That means more weekends like São Paulo’s spotless double and fewer like Zandvoort’s cruel DNF. It also means getting both cars to the ceiling of what the MCL can do — something Stella admits McLaren hasn’t always managed at a handful of rounds this season.
Vegas is a particularly interesting test of that pledge. McLaren were nowhere there last year, trudging home sixth and seventh while battling graining and a set-up window that never really opened. Stella is adamant those lessons have been banked, and notes that this year’s tyres are less prone to chewing themselves to bits. “It could be a slightly different Vegas,” he said. “For Lando and Oscar, there’s no problem in terms of track layout coming in the next races. We need to make sure we extract the full performance that is available in the car.”
It’s the kind of language you hear only when the walls feel a little closer and the stakes a little louder. McLaren have the quickest car often enough to make this theirs; they also know what a run of missed opportunities looks like. That cuts both ways. Piastri’s mid-season authority didn’t vanish by accident, and form has been fickle in 2025. Norris has been razor-sharp lately, but Brazil’s swagger only counts once. You’ve got to do it again in neon and again by the gulf.
So is Norris marching towards the crown? Yes — but he’s doing it with his head down and his boss blocking out the parade route. The margins tell one story; the season has told another. Vegas, Qatar, Abu Dhabi. Three more races, three more chances to get it wrong — or to make it inevitable.
