Behind McLaren's title victory there is also an Italian: Andrea Stella. The engineer, originally from Orvieto, became team principal of the English team at the beginning of last season. Stella certainly deserves credit for having gathered the good things done in previous years and for having transformed the team into a team capable of competing for victory. A triumph, therefore, that came from afar.
Abu Dhabi for Stella is a stage of a longer journey: McLaren wins and it's just the beginning
The constructors' title had been missing from McLaren since 1998. Drivers: Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. Team principal: Ron Dennis. Now, however, in his place sits Andrea Stella, who has been working for the historic English team for almost ten years now. Ten years, just when McLaren found itself at the beginning of a heavy ordeal. The beginning of the turbo-hybrid era, in fact, was an absolute disaster. Despite the good intentions of a new partnership with Honda, the results were completely disappointing. Leaving aside the first year, 2014, still run with Mercedes engines, the following seasons saw the Woking team in constant difficulty. In 2015 Andrea Stella had just arrived at the English team, having moved from Ferrari with Fernando Alonso in the role of track engineer for the latter.
Results, as mentioned, terrible. Car and team with very few sponsors. Thus began a very slow reconstruction, which for years saw McLaren distant from the top teams such as Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. Alonso also left McLaren, but Andrea Stella remained. Time proved him right. The engineer from Orvieto successfully participated in the technical and sporting rebirth of the historic English team. The Papaya color returned, like the cars of the time of Bruce McLaren, a great driver and founder of the team in 1963. In 2019, the Lando Norris who, together with Carlos Sainz, are already starting to bring some satisfactory results. In the Brazilian GP of the same year, Sainz gets on the podium, while in 2021, Daniel Ricciardo brings the English team back to success in the Italian GP.
The 2022 regulatory changes, however, do not smile on McLaren. They need to start over, again, and, above all, to question themselves. A year later, the situation seems compromised, with both cars occupying the back of the grid in the first GP of the season. In the meantime, however, Andrea Stella has become the new team principal. The man from Orvieto asks for patience, because the team knows what to work on and the results will come. A promise largely kept, so much so that Piastri also wins the Qatar sprint race. This year, however, the consecration. With Abu Dhabi they make six victories and the constructors' championship. A result that, as mentioned, comes from a long way back.
Andrea Stella compliments his opponents: “two teams that raced like champions”
Fernando Alonso also congratulated Stella, declaring that “what Abu Dhabi took away from us in 2010, it has given back to us today”. The Spaniard is referring to when, still at Ferrari, they both lost the world championship in the last race against Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull, after getting stuck in the wake of Petrov's Renault. But now we are in another chapter of this beautiful book called Formula 1. McLaren and Andrea Stella won against Ferrari.
A battle between the two stables that continues to recur in the various eras of this sport. This is how Stella wanted to comment on this prestigious confrontation. “Ferrari and McLaren. I don’t think there was much to choose from. In the end it was a matter of a few points and a few details here and there. Two teams that operated and raced like a world championship. In the end there is only one winner, the harsh law of this sport. Both would have deserved it. So congratulations to Fred (Vasseur), congratulations to Ferrari. Also to the drivers, crystal-clear class again today. I didn’t trust Leclerc who started last and he showed it”.
A result, as mentioned, that came from afar. Made possible thanks to a long-term vision by those who have always believed in the people of the team. “This is not a day job, it is an investment that is made around people. I have been working at McLaren for ten years and as team principal I have been able to benefit from this investment made over the years. At McLaren we have reflected on creating a winning mentality, creating emotional resilience. It is a jungle and there are peaks in this sport that can only be tolerated if you have thick skin. While I was among the team I thought about how many steps forward have been made to get to this result. For me an emblematic moment was the last pitstop: there was a whole season there and it was one of the fastest”.
