How a key ingredient of McLaren’s glory era is shaping its F1 future

It hasn’t escaped Emanuele Pirro that he’s been rather popular of late. Perhaps this should come as no surprise. After all, interest in the Le Mans 24 Hours, where the charming Italian claimed five victories for Audi between 2000 and 2007, reached an all-time high in 2023, the classic race’s 100th anniversary year.

But rather than his exploits behind the wheel – which in Formula 1 peaked with fifth place for Benetton in the 1989 Australian Grand Prix – his continually pinging inbox has had everything to do with his appointment last April to head up McLaren’s driver development programme.

“A lot of time is dedicated to responding to people because once you become director of a programme like this, you find out your number of friends worldwide increased dramatically!” Pirro tells GP Racing.

Following his retirement from racing in 2008 (although he made sporadic appearances two years later for the team owned by former UK science minister Paul Drayson) Pirro worked with the FIA, serving on various commissions and becoming a well-respected driver steward in Formula 1. This period developed in him a desire to “help motorsport improve if possible” and then, he says, “almost as a coincidence, this opportunity came along”.

“For me it was really a perfect fit,” he smiles.

That’s because McLaren played such a transformational role in his early career. Little wonder he says the team “always had a sweet spot in my heart”. The association goes back to 1988, when he was the team’s Japan-based tester working closely with Honda on engine development. It followed a chance invitation from Stefan Johansson to film a Marlboro commercial in Phoenix at the end of 1987, a year Pirro had spent racing touring cars for BMW after two race-winning Formula 3000 seasons failed to yield an F1 berth.

Photo by: Motorsport Images

McLaren handed Pirro a leg up into F1, and he repaid it with several years of loyal service

McLaren boss Ron Dennis pitched the test-driver job without any promise of a race seat but, Pirro recalls, Dennis suggested “‘by doing this you will develop an experience that might make you become appetible [a typically recherché piece of ‘Ronspeak’] for a Formula 1 team’, which exactly happened”. He was called up by Benetton to replace Johnny Herbert mid-way through 1989 and then had two years with Scuderia Italia, all the while on McLaren’s books pounding around Suzuka through its four years of domination with the Honda-powered MP4/4, 4/5, 4/5B and 4/6.

“This is almost crazy if you think about it now with the confidentiality,” he says. “But this is evidence of how strong the bond was between me and Honda and McLaren. They trusted me and still kept me and asked me to do the work.”

Pirro is also grateful to the team for not only paying for a race drive in Japanese F3000 with the Team Le Mans Reynard outfit in 1988 and ’89 – which kept him race sharp until the F1 door opened – but also in revealing areas in his own game he could improve.

"I thought at the time I was a good racing driver with little I needed to learn, until I got to know [Alain] Prost and [Ayrton] Senna, and the whole team. It enriched me as a professional sportsman and also as a human being" Emanuele Pirro

“McLaren gave me an opportunity to live and breathe in a state-of-the-art environment,” remembers Pirro, describing the era as “probably one of the best racing periods of all time”.

“I thought at the time I was a good racing driver with little I needed to learn, until I got to know [Alain] Prost and [Ayrton] Senna, and the whole team. It enriched me as a professional sportsman and also as a human being. That era was really something very special; the chemistry which was there, the quality of individuals, the bond, the leadership.”

The next generation

The name above the door may be the same, but much has changed from the McLaren of 30-plus years ago. However, Pirro has been deeply impressed by the team’s direction of travel under Zak Brown and Andrea Stella, calling their leadership “so inspirational”. He believes this is even more important than the strength of the Lando Norris-Oscar Piastri driving partnership or the team’s improvements in infrastructure.

“Now McLaren is starting to live a dream period with very strong leadership,” he says. “More than the new wind tunnel, more than the new simulator, more than the pair of drivers who are arguably the best pair around or at least really, really good – apart from all these things, I think the big asset in McLaren is the human side, the leadership and the people at the helm.”

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Pirro is impressed by the direction of travel at McLaren in the modern era and is determined to see it enjoy a successful future

Pirro is far too modest to include himself in that assessment. But throughout his career Emanuele was known for having an astute technical mind, a point evidenced by the profession of his two sons – both engineers working in motorsport. Cristoforo is a performance engineer for Valtteri Bottas, while Goffredo is Prema’s Formula 4 team manager. Unsurprisingly then, Pirro adopts an analytical approach to his new role.

“I take it very seriously and I want to use McLaren money very carefully,” he says. “The target is to find the new Lando and the new Oscar, because as much as they are young, of course you need to have a backup plan. This is the purpose of the programme.”

Pirro is clear, however, that the purpose isn’t only to identify and recruit future F1 drivers, but also to make those under McLaren’s wing the best they can be. The programme also serves as a potential talent pipeline for its IndyCar and Formula E operations, and to get the maximum return quality over quantity has been a priority. Pirro believes it’s important drivers know that, if they deliver, they won’t have several drivers of a similar age to compete with – reaching the top demands that “you have to become exceptionally good at the right time”.

Upon his arrival, there were just three drivers on the programme: IndyCar aces Pato O’Ward and Alex Palou plus 16-year-old Formula 4 racer Ugo Ugochukwu. After Palou broke contract and decided against joining McLaren’s IndyCar operation, his role as F1 reserve was taken by Toyota’s 2022 Le Mans winner Ryo Hirakawa (at 29, the eldest member of the programme). The roster has recently expanded to accommodate F3 rookie champion Gabriel Bortoleto (19) and Bianca Bustamante (18), McLaren’s representative in F1 Academy this season.

“The earlier somebody is embedded in the McLaren way of working, the more efficient they will be inside and outside the car once they sit in a Formula 1 car,” says Pirro. A focus on improving driving skills will be just one aspect of the programme; Pirro also believes in working on drivers’ mind-management capacities.

He points out that the papaya team has “a strong tradition with a few very good examples of drivers being picked from an early stage”. Norris and Piastri are following a trajectory famously established by Lewis Hamilton.

“McLaren has got this in its DNA,” says Pirro. While Piastri was poached from Alpine’s driver-development programme, he had in effect been parked for a season after winning the F2 championship and faced the possibility of more of the same. Norris was a runner-up (to George Russell) in F2 but had otherwise blazed a winning trail through the junior series; McLaren backed him over the more experienced Stoffel Vandoorne for an F1 seat in 2019 and carefully coached Norris through his well-documented self-confidence issues.

“We believe at McLaren we are good at this,” says Pirro. “The contribution of McLaren to make Lando so strong today has been quite big. So, by picking people from a very young age
and not having many of them, we believe that
for a given amount of talent we can extract the best possible package.”

Photo by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images

Pirro, pictured with Pato O'Ward at F1's Abu Dhabi test, says the academy is still in a growth phase

Juggling act

Describing a typical week, Pirro admits that McLaren’s Driver Development programme is still in a growth phase. “Let’s say the train is still accelerating,” he says, “not far away, but definitely not at cruising speed which means
I still have to do multiple things.”

Among the most time-consuming of these
is correspondence. Pirro feels compelled “to
give every single one at least an opportunity
to receive an answer”. Having submitted many proposals without reply in his earlier career,
he believes making the effort can be an important motivation.

“It can be good for them and it has been good for some of them,” he says. “I spend a lot of time to answer people properly and evaluate those who can be potentially good for us.”

"Rome wasn’t built in a day, it takes time and the benefit of such a programme will be seen in some time. But I really hope we can be inspirational for young drivers" Emanuele Pirro

This involves talking to those close to the driver, from engineers to management, and then the parents and the individual in question to get a handle on their character. 

“Being successful is not only delivering a good lap time,” he says. “With all the tools available to a driver, the difference is very slim between the very good ones and the OK ones. But then the very good ones excel in other areas. Personality and the attitude can give you an idea of whether somebody can be a potential champion.”

The next step is negotiating, which involves a fine line of knowing “what to offer, how to offer”. It’s a balance between offering enough to snare a hot prospect who could easily be snapped up by a rival academy scheme but not too much.

“I just want McLaren to spend money properly,” he says. “Rome wasn’t built in a day, it takes time and the benefit of such a programme will be seen in some time. But I really hope we can be inspirational for young drivers.

“My dream is to help somebody who would not have made it without our support.” 

Photo by: McLaren

Among the recent appointees to McLaren's scheme is reigning F3 champion Bortoleto

Growing the female talent pool

Attracting and developing more female drivers is a key goal for F1. The challenge has been to achieve scale. One of the biggest shortcomings of the moribund W Series was its lack of progression: Jamie Chadwick won each of its three editions before the championship hit financial trouble and folded in 2022.

F1 Academy, which has effectively replaced it as an all-female junior single-seater offering, has made sure to avoid that. Inaugural 2023 champion Marta Garcia has secured a paid-for seat in Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine next year.

Another edge the Susie Wolff-led F1 Academy has on W Series is its close ties with Formula 1. All 10 F1 teams are represented: each will have a nominated driver on the 2024 F1 Academy grid, with 10 of the 15 174 bhp Tatuus T421 chassis – the same as used in the British and multiple national F4 contests worldwide - bearing an F1 livery. And the first outfit to commit to a driver was McLaren.

Twice a winner with Prema in F1 Academy this year, Bianca Bustamante will join ART Grand Prix as a member of McLaren’s driver development programme. Hailing the move as “unreal”, she said: “I’m so grateful for this opportunity as I believe I now have the best possible development structure around me to take the next step up in my career.”

Williams emulated that precedent by adding its representative Lia Block to its driver academy, and others have duly followed, with Mercedes appointing sportscar racer Doriane Pin earlier this month.

Photo by: McLaren

Bianca Bustamante has joined McLaren as its F1 Academy representative, and will benefit from Pirro's wealth of experience