Can Norris win in Monaco? Stella says the MCL39 has 'A lot more to be extracted'

12:40, 25 May

Updated: 12:41, 25 May

bySavannah Lenz

After Lando Norris took pole position by one tenth and set a new lap record at the Circuit de Monaco, Andrea Stella said the MCL 39 has more to show.

When asked if Norris taking pole was the start of him ‘breaking through’ his bad qualifying moments, Stella said, “Today is an important step in the process which like I say is not only a process for Lando, it's also a process for Oscar, because in this kind of business you always have to look forward and look as to how you can improve.”

'More to be extracted'

He continued, “Let's say with Lando we had a few bits of information that we could process and extract in particular some adaptations and care points that we needed to consider, especially as we were going through the qualifying session which worked very well today.”

“Definitely, this will somehow reassure Lando, his group of engineers, and everyone who keeps supporting Lando. Likewise, Oscar, the work that has been pulled off was working well, allowing Lando to exploit his speed and his talent, but I kind of have a sense that there is quite a lot more to be extracted.”

“I take very positively this step forward, but I am excited and I look forward to the steps further that we will be able to do in the future.”

About Oscar qualifying third he said, “This one is with Lando and with Oscar, because I'm sure Oscar will have said in his session, I haven't heard it, so maybe I'm wrong, but he will have said that there's a few things during qualifying that didn't work like he wanted, okay, and it was at times of the rhythm.”

“It's tricky, it's very difficult, it's a very very fast Formula One [track] and very challenging for the drivers.”