The McLaren boss acknowledged the good form of the championship leader, although he believes his team has the strongest driver pairing: "We must recognize Kimi's driving quality," he stated.
McLaren lived its best weekend of the season in Miami, victory in the sprint race with Lando Norris and a double podium in the Grand Prix with Oscar Piastri third and Norris second. However, Andrea Stella, the British team's boss, prefers to keep his feet on the ground, the goal is to defend the 2025 titles, but without falling into premature triumphalism.
"If we start thinking about titles at the end of the season, we need to be a bit cautious, because we've only done four races," Stella declared. The executive recalled that McLaren has just introduced its first upgrade and that the performance in Miami could be influenced by the circuit's characteristics: "McLaren usually performs well in Miami, so it may be that the way we develop cars suits this circuit. We'll have to wait and see what happens," he added.
Optimism is moderate: "Before Miami we said the championship is not decided, so the logical thing is to think long term and try to defend the title, but as soon as we say that, we go back to the present and do the right thing today, because it really doesn't make much sense to think that far ahead," reflected the former engineer of Fernando Alonso.
What Stella was clear about was the need to praise the current championship leader, Kimi Antonelli. The Italian has three wins in four races and has established himself as the big favorite for the title: "We must recognize the quality of driving, the consistency, the speed both on fast laps and in race pace, as well as the overall execution. We must recognize what Kimi has been demonstrating and delivering on track," he noted.
Stella attributed the Italian's leap in quality compared to his debut season to a job well done: "For some reason, things seem to have changed, I think this is due to the good work Kimi must be doing with the engineers and the team around him. There's always a group of people around the driver, and success happens because this synergy works. Congratulations to Kimi, congratulations to Mercedes," he concluded.
Despite everything said, the executive did not hesitate to defend his own: "We probably have the strongest driver pairing," Stella stated and cited as an example the performance of his drivers even when the car was not competitive: "In Japan, with a car that was not yet competitive, Oscar was in a position to fight for victory and get a podium, in Miami, Oscar confirmed another podium and Lando won the sprint and fought for the victory," he recalled.
"We want to capitalize on this strength that we have at McLaren, but we need the car to be a bit faster," Stella stated.
The challenge is enormous, Mercedes remains the car to beat, with a couple of tenths of an advantage over the rest, but at McLaren they trust that the Norris Piastri duo, the most solid on the grid, can make the difference in the fight for the titles.
The next round, in Canada, will be another test.