The principles Stella holds dear at McLaren to make the F1 team tick

Andrea Stella needs little introduction as McLaren’s team principal, but the eloquent Italian began his Formula 1 career at Ferrari at the turn of the century.

That means the 55-year-old has not only worked alongside some of the greats of the sport, including Ross Brawn, Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, but he knew McLaren from the outside, as a competitor, long before he arrived in Woking.

Stella joined McLaren as head of race operations in 2015. He was promoted to performance director in 2018 and then executive director, racing, in 2019. He became team principal ahead of the 2023 season.

Under Stella, McLaren has scored 21 world championship grand prix wins (as of the 2026 Hungarian GP), 22 pole positions and three titles – two constructors’ (2024-25) and Lando Norris’s drivers’ crown last year. 

Given his experience of racing both against and with McLaren, Autosport wanted to get his insights for this celebration and Stella duly obliged over the Belgian GP weekend at Spa.

You worked at McLaren’s great rival, Ferrari, for many years. From the outside, how did you view McLaren?

AS: "During my years at Ferrari, McLaren was always a formidable benchmark. When you compete against an organisation of that calibre for world championships, you develop a very deep respect for what it is capable of achieving.

"McLaren were relentless competitors, and from the outside you could recognise a level of technical precision and competitive discipline that pushed the whole paddock to operate at a higher standard."

Stella has worked with many F1 greats, and competing against McLaren imbued him with a deep respect for the team

Photo by: Martini / Sutton Images vis Getty Images

How different was McLaren when you joined compared with what you expected?

AS: "When I arrived in 2015, McLaren was entering a demanding period, particularly with the transition to Honda and the need to adapt to a very novel power unit that was not yet mature. It was only the second year of a new regulatory cycle, and there were also important changes on the chassis side – in some ways similar in scale and complexity to the regulation changes we are dealing with now. 

"My first priority was to contribute to the race team as effectively as possible: technically, operationally and, above all, by helping to unlock the potential of our most important resource, our people."

When you became team principal after the 2022 season, what was your vision? What did you feel needed to change, and how did you go about implementing it?

AS: "The mission was to create empowerment through clarity. We looked very carefully at how efficiently we were using the technical talent already available within McLaren. It was immediately clear to me that the team was rich in exceptional people; the opportunity was to give that talent the right leadership structure, the right organisation and the right clarity of purpose.

"One key area was the technical department. We moved away from a model centred on a single technical director overseeing the whole group and created a structure with three technical directors: one for aerodynamics, one for design and engineering, and one for performance."

What makes McLaren special?

AS: "It is the shared sense of ownership and the culture of constant progress. When we succeed today, I want everyone at the factory to feel, 'This is something I own. This is something I earned. This is something I helped create.' That sense of shared contribution is incredibly powerful. 

"Helping people recognise the value of their own work, and see how it connects to what happens on track, is one of the things that makes this team so special to me."

McLaren’s history is there to inspire but not linger over – Stella’s focus is solely on the present and future of the team

Photo by: Darren Heath / Getty Images

How important is McLaren’s history to you personally, and to the team more broadly? Do you draw inspiration or lessons from it?

AS: "McLaren’s history, more than 60 years of it, including achievements such as the triple crown, is foundational. But one of the most important lessons Formula 1 teaches you is that you can never rely on the past. If you think you can relax, rest or slow down because something has worked before, you will quickly face very big surprises. 

"Our legacy inspires us, but we use it as fuel. It reminds us that we must keep evolving, keep improving and keep finding ways to become better every single day."

Do you have a favourite McLaren era? When you look along the McLaren Boulevard, are there any cars that stand out most to you?

AS: "The heritage cars on the Boulevard are iconic, but my focus is very much on the present and the future. One of the things that makes me proudest of my time as team principal is that we have filled the trophy cabinet at the McLaren Technology Centre to the point where we needed to build a new, larger one. My favourite period is the one we are building now. The mission is very clear: we need to fill that new cabinet in the years ahead.

Our special issue celebrates unsung heroes. How much mental bandwidth do you need as a team principal and is there anyone who supports you in the day-to-day? 

AS: "There is nothing in this sport that you do alone. I am incredibly fortunate to be supported by an excellent group of people right across the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team. I work incredibly closely with Zak [Brown], but also our technical leadership team, our trackside leadership team, and our production leadership team. 

"To manage the mental bandwidth, we don’t focus on the results; we just worry about the execution and getting better every day. The true unsung heroes are the people at the factory whose daily innovations and hard work contribute to everything you see on track each race weekend."

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the Summer 2026 issue and subscribe today.

Stella stresses the importance of all McLaren staff feeling a sense of their shared contribution

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images