New McLaren boss Stella reveals Todt "imprint"

Ian Parkes
Tuesday 13 December 2022 15:33

New McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has revealed the "imprint" created upon him by Jean Todt after starting his F1 career at Ferrari.

The 51-year-old Italian joined the Scuderia in 2000 as performance engineer for the test team, before taking up the same job title but for Michael Schumacher from 2002 to 2006.

Stella played a role in Schumacher winning the final three of his five F1 titles with Ferrari, whilst he was also performance engineer to Kimi Raikkonen during the Finn's championship-winning year of 2007.

After serving as race engineer to Fernando Alonso from 2010-2014, Stella joined McLaren in 2015, initially as head of race operations, then performance director and on to executive director racing before now succeeding Andreas Seidl as team boss.

Throughout his career, Stella has worked under Todt and Stefano Domenicali at Ferrari, then Eric Boullier and Seidl at McLaren.

Assessing what he has learned from the team principals he has served throughout his career, Stella said: "You learn from anybody.

"For me, that's a very strong philosophy, especially when you can work together with strong personalities, very capable people. There's a lot to learn.

"First of all, Jean Todt, his incredible dedication to the team, his role is something that gave me an imprint of what it means to be committed.

"Overall, that was early imprinting on my career in Formula 1, having had the privilege of such a successful environment as the Ferrari 2000s."

Stella - no ego after Ferrari Domenicali stint

Stella described Domenicali as "a people person". He added: "Formula 1 is about engineering operations but it is ultimately very much about people.

"So from Stefano, I understood some elements and qualities that you need to take to be highly regarded as a team principal.

"Also, in some ways, of interacting with people based on respect, listening, and managing your ego somehow."

Stella claimed that as he "worked more closely" with Seidl, his learnings were very different.

"He brought some engineering experience from his previous career so this was very useful for me in shaping up the race team, making progress in some areas like the pit stops," assessed Stella.

"When we talk about the progress made in that area by McLaren, I would like to pay tribute to Andreas' input, from that point of view.

"So what I am taking from collaborating with Andreas is the importance of knowing the business, the technical, engineering, operational aspects, as such you can coach people, support people in a more effective way to make progress."