McLaren throw down challenge to Norris for 2022

McLaren executive racing director Andrea Stella has backed Lando Norris as "one of the strongest drivers" in F1 whilst challenging the Briton to up his consistency levels in 2022.

Norris was one of the standout performers in 2021, scoring four podiums across the season and amassing 160 points to end the year sixth in the drivers' standings.

Such was the pace of the 22-year-old he was in contention to finish third behind only title rivals Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton until a late power unit upgrade pushed Ferrari ahead of McLaren in terms of outright pace.

Speaking in a media briefing, including GPFans, in Abu Dhabi, Stella explained: "I think Lando, in his third year of Formula 1, has developed in terms of, first of all, pure speed.

“I am confident to say that in terms of pure speed, he is one of the strongest drivers on the grid and I think this is true in all conditions.

"It is enough to think some of the performances in the wet and also the pole position he scored in Russia was in transitional Tarmac conditions. In Q3 we shifted from intermediate to soft compound [tyres]."

Although impressed with Norris' progression, with the Briton's points total 63 greater than in 2020, Stella confirmed there remains room for improvement.

“With Lando, we also worked on improving the racecraft, so the capacity to score points, and I think this is in a way proven by the facts [results]," added Stella.

“Where I see the opportunity with Lando is on consolidating these very high standards that he has achieved in every single session, so we want more consistency of deploying this level of top performance."

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