Norris struggling to drive MCL39 at the limit after Jeddah F1 quali crash

McLaren boss Andrea Stella believes Lando Norris is still not able to drive instinctively in the 2025 Formula 1 season, having crashed in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. 

The McLaren driver hit the barrier on his first Q3 flyer, losing control of his MCL39 as he drifted across the unsettling Turn 5 kerbs veering into the wall.

It relegated the Briton from the fight for pole to 10th on the grid, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen went on to pip Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri by 0.010s.

Norris’ latest qualifying faux-pas, which he inevitably slammed himself for afterwards, feeds a narrative that the 25-year-old is in the doldrums as McLaren made its car quicker by inadvertently introducing elements that made it harder for him to drive on the limit.

But after Bahrain last weekend in which Norris looked bereft of confidence in the car, he had actually been more comfortable aboard the MCL39 in Jeddah and had been right there with Piastri until his Q3 crash.

Stella confirmed impressions that Norris had made a step with his machine, but explained his driver was still lacking that final one percent of harmony with how he expects his car to behave on the absolute limit, which cost him dearly on a fast street circuit where most mistakes will end up in the wall.

“Lando this weekend was definitely quite competitive. Every single session, every set of tyres, he put together good laps,” Stella said when asked about the crash by Autosport.

“But I think in Q3, when Lando tries to squeeze a few more milliseconds out of the car, what we see is that the car just doesn’t respond as he expects.

“So, this is a behaviour that surprised him. The car understeered a bit in Turn 4, ended up on the outside kerb, and this outside kerb can be quite unforgiving.

“What’s happening is an episode that starts from some of the work that we have done on the car. It made the car faster overall, but it took something away from Lando in terms of predictability once he pushes the car at the limit.”

Stella drew parallels between Norris’ plight and that of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who is also struggling the get the full potential out of his Ferrari over one lap, with Hamilton saying he was relieved to be as high as seventh on the grid despite being well behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

As Verstappen broke the high-speed Jeddah track record once more, Stella felt the current generation of F1 cars was “too fast to think”, meaning a driver needs to be fully at one with the machine to drive it on instinct, because there is no time to second guess how it will behave.

“These cars are so fast, they are so demanding in terms of just adopting a very natural driving style,” he explained.

“We hear this even from Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, and yet he talks about driving the car in a natural way, because these cars are too fast to think.

“You either get what you anticipate from the car, or you’re going to be slow, and Lando doesn’t accept to be slow.

“So, it’s our responsibility to make sure that we give him a car that is at the level of his talent, and to try and correct this behaviour, because we want Lando to be confident and comfortable that he can push the car.”