It’s hard to fathom that a little over a year ago, McLaren was struggling to finish in the points. This year, they have fought at the front of the grid throughout, and are currently the favorites to win the Constructors’ Championship with one race to go. However, their journey to the cusp of glory actually began two years ago when silverware was nowhere in sight.
Andrea Stella became McLaren’s Team Principal in 2022 after the team struggled to live up to expectations with Andreas Seidl in charge. However, instead of raising CEO Zak Brown’s expectations, the first thing Stella told him was that the Woking-based outfit was going to struggle in the first half of the 2023 season.
“Andrea did a great thing,” Brown said on the Red Flags Podcast. “Which was stressful…he said, ‘We’re gonna suck at the start of 2023,’ and he nailed that.”
It was great foresight from the Italian engineer, who recognized the several problems that lingered in the team. McLaren did start horribly, as Brown admitted. For the first few races, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were actually backmarkers.
There were also rumors of Norris contemplating an exit from the papaya team owing to his struggles. McLaren had failed several of its early-season developmental targets, with Stella not happy about how the car was being designed before he took things over.
Thankfully, Stella turned things around and how. He managed to unlock the potential in the car, bring in upgrades to Austria and then Silverstone where Norris finished on the podium, ahead of Piastri in P4.
Did Stella exceed Brown’s expectations?
Brown was pleasantly surprised with the job Stella did at McLaren. The American expected McLaren to compete for the World Championship, not in 2024 but in 2025, the last year under the current regulations.
He went on to reveal that several facilities, including the wind tunnel in their headquarters, were not fully constructed. But that didn’t prevent Stella from maximizing the output from whatever resources he had at his disposal. “I thought we’d need 110% of everything to be where we are, and we got there.”
Final stop: Abu Dhabi. Let’s finish strong! #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/r3s7usTsW3
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) December 4, 2024
“I’d say, we are a year ahead of schedule,” Brown concluded. McLaren can script history this weekend at the 2024 season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Currently 21 points ahead of second-placed Ferrari, they are one decent result away from winning its first Constructors’ Championship since the 1998 season. The man who deserves a chunk of credit for that is undoubtedly Stella.
