Andrea Stella said that despite winning the last two constructors’ championships, McLaren is still in its very early stages under his leadership as team principal.
McLaren showed clear signs of progress in 2023, Stella’s first year in charge, winning the constructors’ championship in 2024 and defending that title again this year. The latest success came with six races left in the season, and Stella says winning the championship comes with a lot of emotion, but he feels McLaren is not a finished product.
“It’s sweet, it’s happy, it’s pride” Stella (The photo above is of him celebrating the Constructors’ title with his team in Singapore) When asked to explain his feelings, he told SiriusXM: “We are proud to have achieved the Constructors’ World Championship last year and to be contributing to the legacy of the McLaren F1 Team, which in itself would have been almost unbelievable when we started our journey.
“This is a very young journey. It’s only been three years and we’ve now won two constructors’ titles. It’s great to see all the trophies going into the cabinet step by step at McLaren. So I’m especially proud when you look at things from this perspective, a historical perspective, and I just want to share that with the team.”
“This is all made possible by the men and women of McLaren and the fact that they want to embrace the journey. Ultimately it’s their choice, and they made the choice with the concept that we need to go in with dedication and belief, enjoy that journey step by step, and not look too far ahead and keep building every day. If[we]just add one brick to the construction every day, we can go very far.”
Stellar said the team’s bold approach to the new car was often overlooked, as McLaren further separated itself from the field this season despite being in the final year of the regulations.
“We don’t think too much about the final destination because we’re focused on the journey and building one brick each day,” he said. “At some stage last year we realized we had the potential to be champions and we accepted that and continued to develop. Then this year we realized the car was even more competitive but we just focused on one race at a time.
“An important step for me is the fact that last year, when we needed to get closer to the car for 2025, we had the courage to decide to pursue innovation in almost every area, even though it (the 2024 McLaren) was already a very competitive car.
“So I have to commend the courage of our engineering department, because some of the solutions we implemented challenged our state-of-the-art knowledge.”
“It certainly wasn’t in our comfort zone from a design or manufacturing standpoint in terms of what we wanted to achieve, but we ended up with a reliable car and a fast car. So if anything, this was almost a turning point and we probably didn’t talk about it enough, but I think that’s something that everyone at McLaren should be very proud of.”