(Motorsports news) Andrea Stella commented, the Woking-based team produced a surprise at the British Grand Prix, with Lando Norris emerging as Max Verstappen’s main challenger for the race victory, with the McLaren driver finishing second and teammate Oscar Piastri fourth. That excellent achievement came after McLaren had a rough start to the 2023 season, admitting on the eve of the season that its launch-spec car was not as swift as it would have wanted.

However, a technical reorganisation within the team, as well as a good development strategy to rebuild the MCL60, has allowed Norris and Piastri to move from backmarkers to frontrunners. While Stella, who took over as team principal after Andreas Seidl left, has been key in charting McLaren’s return, he remains modest about his personal involvement.

And, rather than taking too much credit for what he has accomplished, Stellabelieves that others who have contributed to the turnaround should be recognized. “You know, for me, my focus is just doing the right things,” he explained. “Just focus on performance, on creating a vision for the team, on ensuring that everyone understands the vision and the direction.”

“The most important thing to remember is that you are not doing these things alone.” I’ve received tremendous help. Even the relationship with Zak Brown, CEO, of McLaren, has been deliberate and close.

“Saying ‘I’ or ‘you’ will be incorrect. Even when it comes to leadership, it is a communal effort. An F1 squad is too complex for one person to turn a situation around and recognize the people who should be a part of this journey.”, Stella added

Stella claims that the changes he made, including a new technical structure that eliminated the position of former technical director James Key, were simply about putting in place mechanisms that were better suited to what McLaren required.

“From a technical standpoint, we wanted to establish a different model based on distributing the aerodynamic, car concept and performance, and engineering and design function in three different areas,” he explained. “This is simply a different way of doing things.”

“It has nothing to do with anyone in particular; it simply necessitates a more distributed model in terms of technical organization. And, if we’re talking about the leadership that contributed to the change, I want to thank everyone who works with me – Piers Thynne, the chief operating officer, and Daniel Gallo, the chief people officer – and, of course, all of this under Zak’s coordination and strategic input.” So it’s a collaborative effort.”

While Stella may not want to extol his achievements at McLaren, Brown has no doubts about the Italian’s influence.

“This guy is awesome,” Brown exclaimed to Sky. “How he inherited what we had at the beginning of the year, recognized the challenges we faced, implemented a technical restructure, and promoted people from within.” “Because, while we’ve made some significant hires, they haven’t yet joined, so this is still the work of all the men and women under Andrea’s leadership.”

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