McLaren's Challenge at Monza: Norris Aims for Victory
Lando Norris and McLaren roll into Monza with the look of a team on a charge, but Andrea Stella is doing everything he can to keep the temperature down.
Two wins. Two poles. A car transformed since its upgrade package. Norris has muscled his way into the race‑win debate and dragged McLaren back towards the sharp end of Formula 1. Yet the team principal is adamant: the Temple of Speed is a different beast entirely.
From high downforce to bare-bones speed
Hungary and Zandvoort flattered the MCL40’s strengths. High-downforce layouts, long sequences of corners, tracks that reward a car that can cling to the road and stay stable when the aero load piles on. That’s exactly where McLaren’s updated package has come alive.
Monza is the opposite. Almost brutal in its simplicity.
Low drag. Minimal wing. Full throttle for around 80 per cent of the lap. Long straights that expose every inefficiency in the bodywork. Heavy braking zones that punish any weakness in stability and stopping power.
Stella is under no illusions.
“The real approach we have is just one race at a time,” he told media, including RacingNews365. “There’s not much more you can influence than just maximising what’s next available, and the next race will be Monza.
“And if we think about the demand of Zandvoort and Hungary, and then we think about the demand of Monza, we are in a completely different regime.”
That “different regime” will decide whether McLaren’s surge is track-specific or something more durable.
Norris on a roll, but not fooled
Norris arrives in Italy as the form driver in the field. The reigning F1 world champion sits only fourth in the standings on 159 points, a hefty 83 behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, yet the momentum has clearly swung his way.
After the Dutch Grand Prix, Antonelli himself admitted Mercedes were “clearly not the fastest car any more on the grid.” Norris, crackling with confidence on team radio, fired back with a message that echoed through the paddock: “The fight’s still on, let’s keep going.”
He’s not blinded by the trophies, though.
“Despite the win, I’m not fully satisfied,” he said after Zandvoort. “We still have weaknesses, particularly in the slow-speed corners, and we need to improve if we want to fight for the championship.”
Those slow-speed limitations matter at Monza. The lap may be dominated by straights, but the time is made and lost in the chicanes and under braking. That’s where a nervous rear end or a marginal brake package can undo an entire weekend.
Drag, brakes and a reality check
Stella has already circled the key pain points.
“But first of all, we need to go to Monza and see that our car can express a good performance on the long straights,” he said. “And we know that drag is not necessarily a point of strength of our car, for instance. There’s a lot of braking, which is not necessarily a point of strength of our car.
“So there are a lot of things that we need to confirm... But so far, I think we can confirm that when we are at high-downforce circuits with this sort of layout, then we can fight for victories.”
That’s the crux of McLaren’s weekend. The MCL40 has shown it can dominate when downforce is king. The question now is whether that performance carries over when the wings come off and the stopwatch exposes straight-line speed and braking stability.
If McLaren can run at the front at Monza – on a layout that should, on paper, highlight their weaknesses – Stella knows what it will mean.
“So I think if we can confirm our improvements in Monza,” he said, “then I would say that the answer to your question is, ‘Yes, we can look with some optimism at the remainder of the season’.”
Norris has already dragged himself back into the conversation. Monza will reveal whether McLaren belong there for the long haul, or whether this charge is tied to the kind of circuits that are now in the rear-view mirror.
