Stella pledges to help Norris after McLaren driver claims he needs a ‘reset’ over the summer break

Andrea Stella has made clear that McLaren will do all they can to help Lando Norris recover from his recent setbacks, but also played the incidents down as being “very, very marginal”.

Norris declared at the end of the Belgian Grand Prix that he needs a “reset” during the summer break, with the British youngster believing that a series of “stupid” mistakes have cost him valuable points at the last few races.

READ MORE: Norris left frustrated by ‘embarrassing’ moment that ‘ruined my chances’ in Belgian GP

At Spa-Francorchamps, for example, Norris dropped from fourth to seventh one corner into the race when he ran wide exiting La Source and drifted into the gravel trap, limiting him to a fifth-placed finish given the added challenge of running in ‘dirty air’.

Giving his take on the situation, and the comments made by Norris, team boss Stella – who recently signed a multi-year extension to his contract to keep him at McLaren – said: “First of all, these kinds of situations, they’re always very, very marginal.

“I think Lando got a little distracted from what was happening on the inside and ran out of track. It’s marginal things, it just I think requires little adjustments here and there.

“Certainly, we work with Lando, like we work with Oscar [Piastri], to try and see all the opportunities in which we can improve individually, but also collaborate better to either be more prepared or to use better our abilities and talents.

READ MORE: McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella signs multi-year contract extension

“So, I think it doesn’t necessarily change our attitude, but definitely gives us some elements to analyse how some of these missed opportunities manifest themselves.”

Norris losing ground in Belgium followed on from similar incidents in Spain and Hungary – where on both occasions he fell from pole position to third on the opening lap – and a dramatic slide from P1 to P7 on the first lap of the Sprint in China.

Stella added that it will be down to McLaren and Norris to determine whether issues in the early stages of races have been happening “for a reason”, or whether it is “just random”.

“Like any other athlete or any other driver, I think Lando himself, with the support of the team, will have to think, ‘What can I do better to make sure we capitalise on the good work we are doing?’” Stella added.

READ MORE: Stella admits Piastri pit stop issue was ‘costly’ in Belgium as he identifies two factors that surprised McLaren

“I think he was in a good starting position [at Spa], but then once we lost the position at the start with this low deg [tyre degradation] and difficult overtaking, it definitely made our lives difficult.”

Despite those aforementioned dramas, Norris remains the nearest challenger to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the drivers’ standings, sitting 78 points behind with 10 races remaining, while McLaren hold second in the constructors’ battle.