By Alan Baldwin
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -McLaren boss Andrea Stella says Formula One title contenders Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri can both feel confident going into the last four races, with neither likely to have a track advantage.
Norris took over at the top by a point from his Australian teammate in Mexico on Sunday but Stella told reporters there was everything to play for in Brazil, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
There are also two sprints to come in Sao Paulo and Doha.
“I think both Lando and Oscar go into the final four races with reasons to be confident,” said the Italian.
“The team also go into the final four races with more understanding of how to extract performance from the car consistently, because over the last four races before Mexico at times we have left some performance in the garage.
“In the final four races, there’s no reason to think that one (track) may favour one driver or the other.”
DOMINANT VICTORY FROM POLE POSITION
Piastri has been beaten by Norris in the last five races and the Briton’s dominant victory from pole position in Mexico City on Sunday wiped out the 24-year-old’s 14 point advantage.
Norris has said he does not believe in momentum, however, and Piastri sounded more optimistic about his situation after racing from seventh on the grid to fifth at the chequered flag on Sunday.
He said he had adapted his driving style to Mexico’s low- grip circuit — conditions Norris thrives on whereas Piastri prefers high grip — and found far more pace than in practice and qualifying.
He might have grabbed fourth from Haas’s Oliver Bearman, but for a late virtual safety car.
“For Lando and Oscar, there’s no problem in terms of track layout coming in the next four races,” Stella said.
“If anything, we need to make sure that from a McLaren point of view we are in condition to extract the full performance that is available in the car.”
Stella pointed out that Las Vegas had been difficult for McLaren last season but this year could be different, with the tyres graining less.
Norris’s win was his first since Hungary in August and McLaren’s first since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of that month — ending a run of four races without a win for the champions.
Stella said Mexico had been a confidence boost for McLaren, even if Red Bull’s resurgent four-times champion Max Verstappen, third on Sunday, cut his gap to the top from 40 points to 36.
“We have proven that we have a car that can win races and in some conditions can dominate races,” he added.
“This is the most important factor to put Lando and Oscar in condition to pursue the drivers’ championship. I don’t think it’s about mathematics, it’s about competitiveness. And it was important to confirm this competitiveness.”
McLaren have ruled out giving Piastri a new chassis, something drivers often ask for when going through an inexplicable drop in performance.
“Every evidence, every piece of data, every indirect measurement or information we have tells us that there is no problem with the car,” he told reporters after Saturday qualifying.
“In reality, there’s a rotation of parts. So it’s not like there’s always the same parts on the car. So we have reasons to be reassured that there’s no problem with the car.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)
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