New Team Principal Andrea Stella Looking to Build on Andreas Seidl Legacy at McLaren

Andrea Stella, the new Team Principal of the McLaren F1 Team, wants to continue on the same path as his predecessor Andreas Seidl and continue to help grow the Woking-based team.

Stella will lead the team for the first time into the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season after Seidl left to join the Sauber Group as their new Chief Executive Officer ahead of their planned merger with Audi Sport in 2026.

The new Team Principal at McLaren hopes to find ‘further opportunities’ that will enable the outfit to make the jump up the field, with the team having aiming to improve on their fifth place finishing from 2022.

“In terms of how we continue for the future, there’s clearly elements of continuation,” Stella is quoted as saying by F1i.com.  “I think we worked very well with Andreas.

“We established some very important directions and we do want to consolidate them.  At the same time, the complexity of Formula 1 leaves the business always open for opportunities.

“It’s day one [on the] job for me, but this is what I’m thinking about intensively and what I will be thinking about together with my leaders at McLaren so that we can find the further opportunities to go even faster towards achieving our mission.”

Stella says the infrastructure being put in place by McLaren, such as the arrival of a new wind tunnel and simulator will also help the team make a leap forward.  He also hopes to enhance the team further by bringing in additional recruits to help them return to winning ways.

“In terms of areas of opportunities, I think, where we definitely would like to make a step forward is delivering a quick car,” Stella added. 

“Some of the reasons why we haven’t been able to do that so far, we know that they are quite structural, and there’s really good action and investments going on at McLaren so that we can overcome these limitations.

“We have important infrastructure coming to fruition in 2023 like the wind tunnel, the new simulator, and I think completing this business is certainly one of my priorities.

“At the same time, we want to make some areas of the team stronger.  We know enough about Formula 1 [so that] we know it is fundamentally an aerodynamic game. So no surprise that one of the areas we want to get stronger is on the aerodynamic side.

“I think we have incredible talent, possibly we need to expand manpower in that area, and that’s also one of the projects that are ongoing which will certainly grant continuity.”