Amidst an growing quantity of motion of personnel between groups, McLaren has prolonged the contract of crew principal Andrea Stella.
This yr, aside from the annual recreation of driver musical chairs, we’re witnessing a big variety of modifications by way of main personnel comparable to engineers, crew principals and technical administrators.
Clearly conscious of this, and equally conscious of the magnificent job he has accomplished in turning the Woking outfit’s fortunes round, McLaren has prolonged its contract with Andrea Stella.
Since taking on the function of crew principal in December 2022, the crew has progressed quickly below his steering, incomes two Grands Prix wins, an extra 18 Grands Prix podiums and one Dash win.
Previous to his crew principal function, Stella labored as Head of Race Operations and Efficiency Director, earlier than being promoted to Govt Director, Racing in 2019. Earlier than becoming a member of the crew in 2015, he began his profession at Ferrari, working as Efficiency Engineer for Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen after which as Race Engineer for Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso throughout his 15-year tenure.
Up to now yr, the crew has confirmed multi-year extensions for drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. In the present day’s announcement reaffirms the long-term stability of the crew in its pursuit of World Championships.
“It is a privilege to be a part of the McLaren Formulation 1 crew,” mentioned Stella, “and I’m honoured to proceed in my function as Staff Principal. We have made nice strides ahead previously yr and a half and we nonetheless have much more work to do to persistently battle on the entrance of the grid, which poses an thrilling problem. Success comes via the Staff working in synergy, and I’m having fun with my function, which has allowed me to assist unlock particular person expertise and empower individuals to work collectively in direction of our Staff’s aims.
“My thanks go to Zak for his confidence in me as a pacesetter, to my complete management crew and all my colleagues within the Staff, for his or her continued collaboration and assist. I’m excited for what we will proceed to attain collectively.”
“I’m delighted to substantiate we have prolonged Andrea’s contract as our F1 Staff Principal for a number of years,” added Zak Brown. “His wonderful management, experience and the respect he holds throughout the crew and Formulation 1 means we couldn’t have a greater particular person in place to proceed the pursuit of persistently combating on the entrance of the grid.
“His influence on McLaren F1 in his function as Staff Principal has been profound, not solely via our outcomes on observe and the trajectory of the crew but additionally in his improvement of our tradition and mind-set.
“With multi-year extensions already agreed with Lando, Oscar, and now Andrea, we will confidently proceed on our quest to develop into World Champions. We’re all wanting ahead to the years to return below Andrea’s management.”
Curiously, Stella assumed the function of crew principal following the departure of Andreas Seidl to Audi in preparation for its entry to F1 in 2026. Simply a few weeks in the past, Audi introduced that Seidl had been dropped in favour of Mattia Binotto.
