The face that embodies McLaren’s revival, even more than Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, is that of Andrea Stella. The 53-year-old engineer from Orvieto was promoted to the role of team principal in December 2022, and a year and a half later, McLaren quickly requested a contract extension. In 18 months of Andrea Stella’s management, the team has changed significantly.
Some may say it was the right timing, but in reality, without Stella’s contribution, the team now leading the Constructors’ Championship would not have taken shape. While the role of team principal requires a more managerial than technical vision, the engineer’s spirit of Stella emerges even in front of a microphone, with a pause after the question and an impeccable articulation of the answer. From technical growth to driver management, Stella explains McLaren through basic rules that have allowed one of the fastest comebacks in Formula 1 history.
Can you point to a moment or period as the McLaren turning point?
“The weekend of last year’s Austrian Grand Prix. That weekend, we brought the first major updates to a car that had not been performing up to that point. At the start of last season, we were aware that the car wouldn’t be competitive, but we knew that the Spielberg weekend would be a crucial moment to evaluate the changes we had made in leadership, organization, working methods, and mindset.”
What made the difference compared to previous seasons?
“We focused mainly on mentality, aiming for it to be much more performance-oriented. Seeing these changes materialize into a big step forward in performance was very encouraging; it gave us confidence and a sense of perspective. We told ourselves, ‘okay, if we continue like this, we can do well.’ What brought McLaren back to being a competitive team, starting from the first two races of 2023 when we were at the bottom of the standings, was a combination of many factors converging toward the goal of extracting the best from people.”
“The aerodynamic package brought to Austria was achieved with the same infrastructure that was available in previous years; we didn’t yet have the new wind tunnel or new CFD systems for aerodynamic development, there wasn’t a new department for composite material production, and there wasn’t a new simulator. Yet, the same people were able to deliver a significant performance leap.”
“The infrastructure upgrades came after the end of 2023, so the subsequent development in Singapore was also conceived and implemented using the methodologies, tools, and people who up to a certain point in the previous season hadn’t been able to put a competitive car on track.”
The investments in the wind tunnel and CFD must have brought some benefits…
“Thanks to the new wind tunnel, we were able to continue the improvement process, but at the same time, we kept improving the team’s organization. We continued looking around, trying to bring in external resources with different skills, knowledge, and working methods. We intervened in certain areas where we had specific needs for roles that we didn’t have in-house, so we went to the market. When the new hires arrived, they made the team even more competitive, but this is an ongoing process. Managing a Formula 1 team is anything but static.”
Is it really a constant work in progress, or do some exaggerate in describing it that way?
“I like to say that every 24 hours, we update our plans, every 24 hours we update what needs to be done because Formula 1 evolves extremely quickly. If you stick to the same plan for two months, that plan can become outdated. So it requires a lot of intensity from a leadership standpoint, an approach that needs to spread to all 1,000 people on the team. I’d say this model is unmatched in any other type of industry.”
In the first 5 races, you were 99 points behind Red Bull. What weren’t you getting right at the start of the season?
“There’s a very rational explanation. The updates we brought in Austria and Singapore in 2023 allowed us to close a huge performance gap, about a second, but to do so, we used a lot of the ‘fuel’ we had in the tank in terms of knowledge, and this impacted the launch car for the 2024 season. If we take Red Bull as an example, we see that throughout 2023, they brought fewer developments to the track, so they accumulated many ideas and insights that were poured into the 2024 car. The development trajectory of a team should be observed over a sufficiently long period to account for these fluctuations, which depend on when new things are brought to the track.”
Was there any alarm after the first five races of the season?
“There was no concern. When we put the 2024 launch car on the track, and saw that Ferrari and Mercedes had made a bigger leap forward over the winter than we had, we weren’t too worried. We were effectively the fourth force on the field, but at the same time, we saw in the development progressing in the background that we kept improving, and when the time came to bring updates to the track during the Miami weekend, we made the leap forward that we expected.”
“From my point of view, I’m extremely satisfied with what the team has managed to achieve over this long period that started last year, regardless of when these developments were brought to the track. There are technical timelines to develop knowledge and turn it into updates, everything must be viewed in the long term.”
Racing at the front meant facing new challenges. What evaluations did you make in deciding how to manage Oscar and Lando on track?
“‘Driver management’ must be framed in the context of the car’s competitiveness. You always need a management line, but if you’re competing for tenth and eleventh positions, all efforts are directed toward achieving competitiveness. It’s when you start fighting for the top spots that the scenario changes. Our focus has always been on maximum collaboration because there’s a main goal, something bigger than the team principal, something bigger than Lando, and something bigger than Oscar, and that’s the team’s interest, McLaren’s interest.”
“This aspect is non-negotiable, in any situation. We’ve always managed the drivers, and generally the rules with which we go on track, according to some principles: the first, as I mentioned, is the team’s interest, and the second is sportsmanship, or if you prefer, integrity.”
What does that mean in the daily management of two highly ambitious talents like Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri?
“These are very important values, we want to act in a fair and correct way toward both our drivers, and this becomes even more important when you have two talents with the skills and the full package needed to win races. We worked hard to get to where we are today, we worked hard to have and grow Oscar, just as we did with Lando.”
“When you have two drivers who collaborate, the team’s growth benefits, and since we were able to provide Lando and Oscar with a competitive car, from the Miami Grand Prix onwards, McLaren has been the team that scored the most points in the Constructors’ Championship. When you find yourself in this situation, you have to define a situation that, I believe, many would want: how do you manage the drivers? We always start from our principles, we don’t negotiate them.”
Can you really run a top team without a number one driver?
“We don’t have a number one driver, nor a number two. This is a scenario that works well for the media and pub conversations, but it doesn’t work when managing a Formula 1 team because you also have to consider the future. I can’t be sure if we’ll win this season, but I’m aware that we want to be in a position to win in 2025, 2026, and 2027, and if in managing the 2024 season I end up disrupting the balance, I won’t have a solid base in the following years.”
“This is how I believe you should work in Formula 1. I’m aware that complex situations can always arise. When I hear about a mathematical approach like ‘Oscar should back up Lando from now on,’ I respond that Lando himself doesn’t want Oscar to play a support role. My challenge is to rely on a united and compact group; I can’t be sure we’ll always do a good job, but we must always be clear that we’re here to keep building, not with the goal of having one weekend of glory, but to do well in the years to come.”
What convinced you that Oscar was the young driver to bet on?
“We studied his path through the junior categories. To win in junior categories in your debut season requires very special qualities because these are championships where it’s very difficult to consistently succeed. Very few have managed to do it, drivers who then went on to do well in Formula 1. For example, take Leclerc, who dominated in Formula 2, and Oscar was victorious in his first year and in a certain way, by maximizing what he had at his disposal.”
“Then, we also really liked Oscar’s personal qualities; he’s a very calm, composed guy, confident but not arrogant. The qualities we saw in the junior categories, combined with his personal characteristics, made us identify Oscar as the perfect driver to pair with Lando for the journey we had just begun at McLaren.”
“When Oscar joined our team, there was still a lot to be done, and when you’re building, you need drivers who can maximize what they have but also young talents willing to grow with you. If a multi-world-champion driver joins the team, it’s clear that the pressure will increase, with the risk of creating a mismatch between the drivers’ expectations and what
the team is ready to deliver.”
And Oscar is growing with McLaren…
“This is the key. Oscar is growing and will become one of the strongest drivers in Formula 1, but the team must grow with him. It’s true that Oscar has shown extraordinary qualities, as demonstrated by his podium in his debut year, and he’s shown a level of maturity and management skills uncommon in such a young driver. Oscar is part of our growth, but at the same time, we grow with him.”
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