Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time champion, suggests that it is "not impossible" for Lando Norris to claim the 2024 world champion title.
Following the disqualification of his Mercedes teammate, Hamilton secured a victory at Spa-Francorchamps, during which time McLaren continued to experience a slight performance falter.
"I think McLaren have maybe dropped off a little bit in some of the last few races," he observed.
"But apart from that, it's a team that is performing very, very well now."
McLaren's team boss Andrea Stella, now confirmed in that role for several more years with the resurgent team, expressed surprise at not being further behind at this point of the season.
"We haven't brought many new things to the track since Miami, which was quite an extensive upgrade," he commented.
"But we still have a few more changes in the pipeline that we will bring in the second part of the season."
Stella also discussed the repeated minor errors made by Lando Norris, such as at the beginning of the Belgian GP last weekend. "We always work closely with both drivers to see where they can improve individually," Stella shared.
"We will not change anything fundamentally, but these missed opportunities, which Lando has recently had more at the beginning of the races, give us something to analyse.
"We need to find out whether there is a reason for this or whether it is just coincidence," he added.
On the same day at Spa, Oscar Piastri made a strong push to the podium but misjudged a pitstop, colliding a bit too harshly with the front jack mechanic.
"We have to work with the drivers to ensure that they don't overdo it in these heated moments," Stella remarked.
"But we're happy with the consistency and strength of the team. We are the only ones who have always been able to score points. And we have now achieved ten podium places in a row."
Stella was also unexpectedly taken aback by a downturn in Red Bull's performance.
"If you had asked me before the race (in Belgium), I wouldn't have been sure whether we could make up any points on Red Bull. I expected (Max) Verstappen to fly through the field," he noted.
With ten races left, Norris trails Verstappen by a substantial 78 points in the 2024 drivers' championship race.
"That's a big number," Hamilton acknowledged.
"It's been a while since I fought for the title, but I think there was a point where I was 40 points behind. McLaren is performing very well, so it's not impossible. But it will be a very, very big challenge," Hamilton concluded.
