Stella trying to instill McLaren with ‘elements’ from Ferrari golden era

Andrea Stella says the “continuity and seniority” of Ferrari during the team’s golden era with Michael Schumacher are elements that he is trying to introduce at McLaren.

Stella was Schumacher’s performance engineer at the Scuderia between 2002 and 2006 and witnessed firsthand the Italian outfit’s remarkable structure and fabric during its period of unwavering success.

The McLaren team boss remembers in particular the potent effect of an organization that relied not only on the quality of its people but also on their loyalty and the cohesion and continuum this produced.

"The seniority, the quality of the people involved; it was just extraordinary," Stella remembered, speaking on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast.

"I think some of them they even accepted to stay in a certain role, knowing that they were absolutely ready to pick one or two higher levels had they gone to another team, but they accepted to stay in that role because that's what was needed to create what was possibly the strongest team that we have seen in Formula 1.

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"There was so much continuity in this journey where you keep identifying what you need to add and you keep building brick by brick. I think this is something that we sort of missed during the Fernando [Alonso] era. And we could have built it, but definitely would have needed a lot of continuity and this brick by brick approach that was established as of the mid 90's at Ferrari.

"There are some elements of the script that haven't changed over the years, independently of the role that I've been on. And continuity and seniority, they do form part of this script. And this is what we are trying to do what McLaren as well."

Under Stella’s leadership, McLaren has transformed its technical and engineering department and set up a new structure that will be completed at the end of the year with the arrival of new recruits Rob Marshall and David Sanchez who are moving respectively from Red Bull and Ferrari to Woking.

However, even as that transformation continues to unfold along with McLaren’s infrastructure build-up, the team has already reaped the benefits of its efforts thanks to a development programme that has propelled its MCL60 car towards the top of the grid.

There is no question that Stella’s vision is directly inspired from his days of working alongside those who constitute back in the day Ferrari’s formidable dream team, including Schumacher, Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and James Allison.

"We definitely want to work on this seniority element, bringing what we call horsepower to the team," he explained.

"We want to compete with Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari. In itself it's a daunting mission, and we need to be well equipped.

"So, we are very excited that David and Rob will contribute with their expertise, with their experience, with their vision towards this generation of cars and also towards 2026.

"Like all teams, we'll have to face this important challenge that is already in the agenda and you need to be equipped."

While excited by what the future will hold when everything will be put in place, Stella underscored the quality of the work that has been accomplished so far by McLaren’s basic workforce.

"[The development we've had] was the result of the people that were already at McLaren and the 2024 car will be the result of the people that are already at McLaren," he said.

"In 2024, we will see what we are able to do in terms of continuing with the development of the car. We will have, and we already have in fairness, full exploitation of the infrastructure that came to fruition: wind tunnel, simulator, manufacturing facilities."

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