F1 | Stella: “McLaren is recovering 15 years without investments”

Over the past year, McLaren has been the protagonist of a great comeback on the technical side. From a first part of the 2023 season in which on several occasions it found itself struggling to avoid the back rows of the grid, now the Woking team has moved on to fight with a certain consistency for the victory, even if recently it has escaped on several occasions due to errors and mistakes.

There are several factors behind this growth, both technically and humanly, which however go hand in hand and are inevitably linked to each other. At the end of last season, in fact, Andrea Stella explained how one of the key elements to unlock the team’s potential was the reorganization phase of the aerodynamic department, led by Peter Prodromou, with a technical triumvirate to which other aspects were then added, such as the new structures.

The Team Principal has in fact been working at McLaren for almost ten years and knows the team’s potential well, even if it has not always managed to capitalize on it. Undoubtedly the strengthening campaign that has taken place in recent years has been a key factor, especially this year, as demonstrated by the arrival of Rob Marshall from Red Bull, but Stella also wanted to underline how in recent seasons many projects have been launched to allow the Woking team to strengthen its structures.

“The reason why we were not able to capitalize on the potential of the team in 2022, I think it is due to multiple reasons. But I would say that some of the infrastructure, for example, that was built in 2023, was approved when Andreas was in charge. Many of the positive things that we benefit from now, were put in place when Andreas Seidl was in charge,” Stella explained. in an interview with Motorsport.com’s sister site, motorsport-total.comnoting how during his time at the helm of the team, Andreas Seidl played a key role in laying down a solid foundation with the support of CEO Zak Brown. Something the German manager is trying to replicate at Sauber, leading the Swiss team’s transition to becoming Audi from 2026.

“It would therefore be an unfair and incorrect interpretation of the chronology and history to think that everything was unlocked because there was this change in leadership, which is not true. I think that, if nothing else, the main contribution that we were able to give to the team was to unlock the element of people.”

Upon his arrival in 2019, former McLaren Team Principal Andreas Seidl pushed for the construction of a new wind tunnel and a state-of-the-art simulator, in order to keep up with a rival team that had already renewed its equipment. Also, under the German’s guidance, the English team repurposed its old F1 factory in Woking into the composites department next to the warehouse where spare kits and parts from the garage are managed for shipment around the world, which allowed it to speed up certain processes with new equipment.

“We have a new simulator, a new composites facility, a new composites manufacturing facility. We have invested, for example, in the machine shop. It’s quite a large set of investments. This was almost a first step to fill the gaps that have accumulated over 15 years of underinvestment at McLaren,” Stella said.

Zak Brown, Lando Norris and Andrea Stella in the new wind tunnel at the McLaren Technology Centre

Photo by: McLaren

The move to the new wind tunnel was a crucial step, as with the new composites room just a stone’s throw from the main office, the team could now test new prototypes in a matter of hours, rather than having to wait days to arrange a move to Germany. Both the MCL60 and some of the previous cars were developed in the Cologne wind tunnel, but the fact that it was so far from Woking imposed certain limitations. Once the new parts for the scale model were physically built, they had to be shipped to Germany by van, losing days of work, and if a change was needed, the whole process would have to be re-done.

“One of the reasons why we had so much difficulty with the new rules is that we had to move to the wind tunnel in Cologne. To give a reference, when you develop a new geometry for a certain part, it has to be tested. We had to wait between seven and ten days because we had to bring everything to Cologne. Other teams could do it 24 hours later in their wind tunnel. Instead our engineers would have to wait about ten days to get feedback.”

“It’s a completely different sport. It’s almost like playing basketball, but with a heavier ball. These investments have helped us close the gap in key areas of infrastructure,” explains Stella, who stressed that for McLaren this represents a starting point after 15 years in which there has been insufficient investment to strengthen the team, especially in terms of facilities.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“We are now looking at the next step from an infrastructure perspective. For example, we need to invest in cars that are currently going beyond their nominal life with repairs, especially those that allow us to monitor the parts that come back from the track and need to be inspected, so we can understand whether they can be put back on the car or not.”

“There are many things that still need to be done at McLaren to be competitive with some of the top teams that have invested consistently and regularly, year after year. These teams have done it for 15 years, while we have done nothing.”

“So, there is still a lot to do. And that is also why we are cautious. We are doing well now, but we are very realistic and humble because we are still recovering as a team,” said the Team Principal.