'Big names are joining to make F1 history': McLaren boss's plan to turn team around

“The first few months have been intense, but enjoyable at the same time,” Stella says. “This role keeps you very busy, like pretty much every role in Formula 1, if you are fully committed.

“It’s a particularly historical time for McLaren, there’s many challenges. But I find it a sort of privilege to be in a leading position in this journey to improving, resolving these challenges.

“And at the same time, I feel privileged and energised, because at the McLaren team, everyone is very engaged. The level of commitment, the level of engagement, motivation, the way people are, being part of the journey is exceptional.”

Stella is not a personality who likes the limelight or to be seen as the figurehead, and views himself as simply part of a much wider team working together to try and return McLaren to competitiveness.

“Pride is not a concept that really belongs to me, I’m much more referred to humility, I think it is a much more important quality. If anything, we want to have the pride of saying we want to lead all together – it is not about the team principal.

“All together, every single person at McLaren, we want to have the pride of leading this iconic team to success. For me, that’s the most important thing. The main enabler is humility, rather than being arrogant, so I hope this is perceived even from outside. I think this is a feature or characteristic of McLaren people. And if anything, I’m proud that humility is recognised.”

Let’s be fair, McLaren has needed its fair share of humility in recent years. After the Honda spell, momentum seemed to be building when the team finished third in the constructors’ championship in 2020 and fourth a year later alongside a win and pole position. But the team appears to have been slipping since then, and action was taken with James Key leaving earlier this year. The former technical director has since announced that he is taking the same role at Alfa Romeo.

There’s an underlying feeling that Stella’s promotion and the serious restructuring that has followed showed he had a clear vision in mind for what he wanted to achieve once he took the reins.

“In general it does not really depend on what I saw before, the first idea is what I have always been doing in my experience in Formula 1, which is to be performance-led. So the first element of the vision was from day one, it was the key element of the narrative, a message: we have to become a performance-led organization.

“Then there were some other elements, which were more kind of McLaren-specific. One is what we call internally ‘dilution’. In many things, we do this dilution – there’s some technical roles and they become a little managerial. Technical, it’s a technical role, no dilution.

“So becoming performance-led and removing dilution was a fundamental element of the vision. And then really, it’s about creating a vision and objectives for the team. And then empowering the key people and giving them the resources such that they can fulfill the objectives.”

The resources are coming along with a new wind tunnel and simulator nearly ready, while the composites facility has been relocated to the former McLaren factory in Woking. But sitting sixth in the constructors’ championship, there’s one clear item missing…

“The main thing that we were lacking as a team is ultimately car performance. So we need it as a matter of priority. Together with Zak, we needed to look into what are the elements which cause this lack of performance from a car point of view? And this set our priorities in terms of what we need to focus on to evolve our team.

“But at the same time, while this was the priority, we are looking at the team in a very holistic and comprehensive way. Once you started to look at opportunities in a Formula 1 team, it becomes quite a long journey, I would say. But people are understanding this kind of approach to always think: What’s the next level? How do we create a performance led organisation? How do we remove dilution? So it’s a 360-degree approach, a 360-degree commitment.

“The approach is holistic because it’s about people and culture that are our main resource and this is the main resource in every organisation. But then, beyond people and culture, you need to have the tools and that’s when the infrastructure and the new facilities comes into play.

“We mentioned the wind tunnel, we need to mention also the simulator, the new composite facility – which is quite a large project – and then we also updated some of our rigs and benches. So now McLaren from an expertise and people point of view, and from a tools and facilities point of view, will be in condition to be competitive and design fast Formula 1 cars. And this is certainly something quite exciting.”

McLaren is of course not alone in having such ambition, but Stella’s claim that it is exciting would appear to be backed up by the recent names that have been attracted to the team. Rob Marshall’s hiring from Red Bull was a major coup, and came hot on the heels of signing Ferrari engineer David Sanchez.

That they have been secured under Stella’s vision should also be a feather in the Italian’s cap, but it’s not an achievement he is willing to take credit for.

“I’m not proud myself, I’m proud for McLaren. What I’ve certainly been able to witness is that joining McLaren, in this historical moment, is incredibly appealing. I think people understand the commitment that – starting from the shareholders, Zak, team principal, everyone – is putting into making this a successful story.

“And I think people also understand that turning things around at McLaren now, and winning at McLaren, means making history in Formula 1. And some of the big names we are hiring, I think they understood this special context in which they will be operating.

“What’s important is McLaren, is the appeal of this incredible, iconic brand. And I think making history because we lead McLaren to victory, not because they work for Andrea Stella!”

Maybe so, but after restructuring the team and creating a project that some of F1’s best technical leaders want to be a part of, Stella will have to take a huge amount of credit if he does return the team to winning ways.