McLaren ship warning to Purple Bull with ‘elevated confidence’ message after Mexico

McLaren boss Andrea Stella says the group’s confidence of their title bid has grown following Lando Norris’ dominant win on the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix.

Norris stormed to a cushty F1 victory in Mexico, successful by over 30 seconds.

It means Norris now leads the championship standings for the primary time because the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Sunday additionally marked McLaren’s first win since Zandvoort in August.

With McLaren’s dominant exhibiting, Stella is adamant they will now beat Max Verstappen to the title.

“The boldness when it comes to the championship has elevated,” Stella mentioned.

“It’s elevated as a result of now we have confirmed that now we have a automobile that may win races and in some circumstances can dominate races. That is a very powerful issue to place Lando and Oscar in situation to pursue the drivers’ championship. I don’t suppose it’s about arithmetic.

“I believe it’s about competitiveness. And it was necessary to verify this competitiveness. And I believe even relating to Oscar, even when he misplaced some factors to Verstappen, I believe Oscar has obtained a variety of studying from this weekend.

“And that’s kind of an funding that you simply make to just be sure you are aggressive in each situation within the remaining a part of the season. So general, we undoubtedly, group and drivers, we come out of this weekend inspired and optimistic for the ultimate a part of the season.”

Norris “very convincing”

The 2025 Mexico Metropolis GP was arguably essentially the most full efficiency of Norris’ profession to this point.

He clinched pole by practically 0.3s earlier than controlling the race from the entrance.

Not like in Texas, Norris nailed the beginning and stored the lead into Flip 1.

“I believe once we take a look at Lando’s current years, now we have seen a weekend with this degree of dominance additionally in another venues. Like final 12 months, I believe we noticed it in Zandvoort,” Stella added.

“We noticed it in Singapore. So, it’s not the primary time, I believe, that Lando reveals performances at this degree. He was very convincing.

“I believe he was simply basically quickest in each single session. He was in a position to capitalise on the efficiency and the power of the automobile.

“In a approach, these particular low-grip circumstances, they match completely his pure approach of extracting lap time, which is nearly like reverse to Oscar’s traits.

“I believe it is going to simply strengthen Lando’s confidence and it will likely be necessary for the ultimate 4 races. However I believe each Lando and Oscar go into the ultimate 4 races with causes to be assured.

“And I believe the group additionally goes into the ultimate 4 races with extra understanding of how you can extract efficiency from the automobile constantly. As a result of over the previous couple of races earlier than Mexico, at instances now we have left some efficiency within the storage.”