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Stella: I will be close to the core objectives of McLaren

December 20, 2022

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Andrea Stella, McLaren’s new team principal, vowed to continue work after Andreas Seidl left the team remaining close to the team’s objectives to win Championships.

Back in November, Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto submitted his resignation as team principal from Ferrari, his move setting off a chain reaction of Formula 1 team bosses’ moves that transpired earlier in December.

Frederic Vasseur moved from Alfa Romeo to Ferrari replacing Binotto, while Andreas Seidl left McLaren to fill Vasseur’s place and set things moving at Sauber in preparation for Audi’s Formula 1 debut in 2026.

At McLaren, Andrea Stella was promoted to replace Seidl, after serving as the team’s Executive Director of Racing previously.

“There’s clearly elements of continuation,” Stella told the media, quoted by Sky Sports F1. “I think we worked very well with Andreas, we established some very important directions and we do want to consolidate them.

“At the same time, the vast study and the complexity of Formula 1 leaves the business always open for opportunities.

“This is what I am thinking about intensively together with my leaders at McLaren, so that we can find the further opportunities to go even faster towards achieving our mission,” the Italian revealed.

“I will be close to the core objectives of the team, which ultimately is to build a quick car and race this car effectively while on track,” McLaren’s new team principal pledged.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown expressed his joy of promoting Stella, claiming the whole team is excited about the changes in the management.

“Here we are with Andrea and as our team principal, which myself, our drivers and our team is extremely excited about,” Brown said. “Andrea obviously has a wealth of experience, not only with McLaren, but a rich history with Ferrari, so was someone that we knew who knew the team inside out.

Good to have a team boss who gets his hands dirty

“He is a very hands-on person in the racing team, which was of high interest to me and the shareholders, to have someone leading the team that gets their hands dirty so to speak, so we are very excited,” he added.

Brown, is proud that McLaren are able to promote from within their ranks saying: “We have done a lot of promotion from within and have got a really solid racing team.

“The response I have had from the racing team about Andrea’s employment has been predictably very well received. As we try and build a team to get back to competing for world championships, it has to be a team effort.”

The main positive Brown singles out is the fact that Stella knows the team, making the transition period seamless; he said: “This feels like we won’t miss a beat versus introducing someone from the outside because it takes quite a way to get up to speed.

“If we didn’t have Andrea, that maybe would have been an alternative to look at, but it was very clear to all of us very quickly that Andrea was who we wanted to have on the team,” the American maintained.

Stella joined McLaren from Ferrari where he spent 15 yearsAndrea began his career with 15-years at Ferrari, where he worked as as Performance Engineer for Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen between 2002 and 2008. He then became Race Engineer for Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso between 2009and 2015.

He joined McLaren in 2015 as Head of Race Operations, then became Performance Director from 2018, and was appointed Executive Director, Racing in 2019, a position he held until his promotion to Team Principal.