Not Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri, McLaren Boss Credits This Individual for Bringing Success

McLaren has faced multiple roadblocks in the past few seasons in their bid to return to the front of the field. However, 2023 was not one of them. The Woking team made an amazing in-season turnaround to finish P4, after having been rock bottom in Bahrain. McLaren CEO Zak Brown has now credited team principal Andrea Stella as the man to have orchestrated this comeback. While Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri capitalized well on their revamped MCL60, Brown feels Stella’s leadership was the key to their turnaround.

Speaking to SpeedCafe, Brown praised the Italian, who took charge as the team boss at the start of 2023 only. Brown said, “Leadership, That of Andrea Stella, and of course his whole team – it’s not just one person, but someone needs to set the direction, the tone, the work ethic, the focus, the goal setting.”

Stella had previously been the Performance director and the Racing director at McLaren since 2018. Thus, in Brown’s era as the CEO, the former Ferrari engineer knew the structure of the team very well. Brown cited that when they rejigged their technical team in 2022-23, Stella was the key person to lead them through a crucial transition phase.

This transition phase may have put McLaren on the back foot at the start of 2023, thus the abysmal start to the season. However, as their Austrian GP upgrade arrived, Stella’s work behind the scenes came to fruition. Brown stated how strong leadership helps to get the best out of people, even if there is a small phase of uncertainty and underperformance.

Under Stella’s guidance, McLaren made immense progress to claim nine podiums in the second half of the season alone. Besides, they also won the Qatar GP sprint race. This was a big achievement, given the team only scored 17 points in the first eight races of the year.

What are Andrea Stella-led McLaren aiming for in 2024?

After finishing P4 last season, Andrea Stella is hoping that McLaren won’t fall back in 2024. Previously, such stepbacks have happened for the Woking team. They finished P3 in 2020 and then fell back in the next two seasons to 4th and 5th respectively. Stella would hope they avoid such a situation again.

On the KTM Summer Grill, the Italian boss highlighted that they want to do better than 4th and possibly aim at P2. In the second half of 2023, they were indeed consistently the second-fastest team behind only champions Red Bull.

However, the McLaren team boss is cautious too about their competition. Teams like Ferrari, Mercedes, and Aston Martin are also aiming to take similar step-ups in 2024. So, Stella cited how their P2 target will also depend on how these rivals develop their cars.

McLaren reveal their 2024 car on February 14th. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri would hope that the MCL38 will improve their prospects from last season. With their new technical structure settling in, it seems McLaren are ready to tackle all challenges in a better way in 2024.