McLaren: thanks to the 'swan' Stella Seidl is just a memory

From Andreas to Andrea

A year ago McLaren suddenly found itself in the position of having to replace its commander. Andreas SeidlIn fact, he left the Woking team to respond to the call to arms from the 'parent company' Audi, which wanted him to work immediately in view of the F1 debut of the Four Circles company starting from 2026.

At McLaren the CEO Zak Brown acted with clarity by 'consulting' the hierarchical scale of the McLaren organizational chart, entrusting the role of team principal to Seidl's 'shoulder', i.e. the Umbrian Andrea Stella, previously track engineer for Fernando Alonso first at Ferrari and then at McLaren. Under Stella's leadership, McLaren experienced a season that was initially disappointing and then exhilarating in 2023, a crescendo that only lacked victory in a Grand Prix, P1 instead arriving in a Sprint thanks to Oscar Piastri in Qatar.

Brown recognized the merits of Andrea Stella: “The impressive thing is that there are the same people as before, but it's a different team and it is a different team thanks to the leadership and decisions of Andrea Stella – the words of the McLaren CEO reported by the Australian newspaper speedcafe.com – was able to make the most of the talent we had, because it's the same people and the same technology. The Bahrain car was built by the same people who found the right updates to increase in performance starting from mid-season. The only difference was a new team principal, a new structure at technical management level and a new head of aerodynamics.”

Andrea Stella has a particular nickname that Brown gave him: “I call him 'the Swan' – he added – It seems like he's a good guy sailing above the water, but actually underwater he's 'rowing' fast. He is not a 'politician' at all, he has no ego, and yes, I am pleasantly surprised, not so much by what he has brought to the stable, but by the speed of the impact he has had. He is not afraid to tell it like it is and to make risky predictions without them being exaggerated. He only says things as he sees them.”