Stella ‘surprised’ by McLaren’s level of dominance in 2025

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says his team entered the 2025 F1 season with high ambitions but admits that even he did not expect the scale of dominance the Woking-based outfit has enjoyed so far.

The Woking-based outfit sits comfortably atop the Constructors’ Championship with 559 points – more than double that of nearest rivals Ferrari, who hold 260. Mercedes trail in third with 236, while Red Bull sits fourth on 194.

Drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have delivered 11 wins from 14 races, leaving them locked in a tight two-way fight for the Drivers’ crown, separated by just nine points at the top of the standings.

Speaking earlier this month during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, Stella revealed his astonishment at the MCL39’s competitiveness.

“I've been surprised by this level of competitiveness," he admitted. "When last year we discussed how much effort we wanted to put in improving the 2024 car, we definitely wanted to be very ambitious.

"We wanted to try and clear the 'going into race weekends and you never know who's going to win' situation we had last year, and we thought we needed to do a little bit more than the normal development.

“So how do we do that? We embraced a very aggressive approach to innovation. The MCL39 is a very innovative car.

"From an engineering point of view, we've been nervous as to whether we were actually in the condition to deliver them [some solutions]. But then when we looked at the lap times and the numbers in simulations, actually, we thought that wouldn't be enough.”

Upgrades Fuel McLaren’s Surge

While McLaren started the season strongly, Stella noted that continued development has been key to maintaining and even extending their hegemony.

“At the start of the season, effectively it wasn’t enough," the Italian explained. "So, there's a factor that has happened during this season, which is the car has actually been upgraded.

“I think it was more noticeable in the past because we were coming with one-off upgrades, and they were in themselves very noticeable.

“But actually, even if we consider the last three, four races, there's been quite a lot of new parts that have been added. If we add all these in a single incidence, then we would say, 'Oh, McLaren has a big upgrade'.

“So, I think this has helped a lot in creating this trend and finding that in the last three races, we were definitely very competitive.”

A Unique Team Journey

Reflecting on the scale of progress achieved, Stella drew comparisons with his successful years at Ferrari – but emphasized that McLaren’s journey feels distinct.

“It's always difficult to compare across seasons," he explained. "In this case, we are comparing across teams, and even myself, I was in a very different role, so my field of view, my perspective was very different.

• Read also: McLaren ‘keeping scores’ on F1 upgrades to ensure fairness

“If I had to pick a couple of features of the journey that is happening here at McLaren, I would say the rate of progress that we have had in a couple of years is in itself pretty unique, and possibly the rate of progress itself was even faster than what we experienced at Ferrari in the very competitive times.

“The second one is that there are no superstars. It's like a proper team journey, and this includes even the drivers. So, I would say these are the two main features that are peculiar to the journey that we are having at McLaren right now.”

With 10 rounds left in the season, McLaren’s dominance has left rivals struggling to keep pace. For Stella, the biggest surprise may be that his team’s ambitions for 2025 – however lofty – have already been exceeded, with both titles now firmly within their grasp.

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