The last few weeks have been quite turbulent at home McLaren. The Woking team, which this year slipped to fifth place in the Constructors’ standings after occupying one of the first four places in the standings for four consecutive years, has in fact experienced a interesting internal revolution which affected both the drivers – with the farewell of Daniel Ricciardo and the arrival of his young compatriot Oscar Piastri – and the team’s managerial roles. The team principal who had contributed significantly to the rebirth of the British team, Andreas Seidl, has in fact decided to leave the papaya stable to land at the court of Sauber – the future Audi team – with the role of CEO. In his place, Zak Brown has chosen to promote Fernando Alonso’s former track engineer to boss of the McLaren wall, the Italian Andrea Stella.
These particular years for the second most successful team in the history of F1, suspended for the past decade in a sort of limbo which seems to prevent him from returning to occupying an absolute protagonist role in the Circus, were experienced with a certain emotional closeness also by those who helped fuel the McLaren legend, conquering what remains the last drivers’ title won so far in Woking: Lewis Hamilton. The seven-times world champion left the team at the end of the 2012 season, embracing the adventure in Mercedes. Since his farewell, McLaren has won only one GP in 10 years: the one conquered in 2021, at Monza, by Daniel Ricciardo. However, the declining parable of the team that first believed in him did not prevent Hamilton from continuing to be a fan of his former team.
“I like to watch [i risultati] of McLaren – Hamilton declared in a recent interview with British TV Channel 4 – coI always check where they are, because that’s where I started and I always wish them well, even if they are now my competitors. There will be days when they are in a crisis and I feel sorry for them because, again, that’s where I had my first test laps, driving my car for the first time. I want them to be fine and I hope next year they have a better year”concluded the #44 of Stevenage.
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