F1 boss claims ‘high calibre’ signings having impact

McLaren celebrate in Japan — Photo: © LAT Images

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F1 boss claims ‘high calibre’ signings having impact

The team have made a few changes

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 26 January 2024 23:57

Andrea Stella has praised the impact that two off-track signings have had on McLaren in his time as team principal.

The papaya team lured Rob Marshall away from his job as Red Bull's chief designer to start with them this month, while David Sanchez left Ferrari to replace James Key after a period of gardening leave.

McLaren enjoyed a fantastic turnaround in 2023, finishing the season in fifth in the constructors' championship with nine podiums between their two talented young drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, despite looking like one of the slower teams in the early part of the year.

Heading into the upcoming 2024 season, McLaren hope to turn at least one of those young drivers into a grand prix winner, and challenge the dominant Red Bull team for the world championship.

David Sanchez was with Ferrari as head of concept before being lured to McLaren

Rob Marshall previously worked as Red Bull's chief designer

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri formed a brilliant partnership in 2023

McLaren in the mix for race wins in 2024

Now, Stella has revealed quite how important Marshall and Sanchez, alongside technical director Peter Prodromou, have been in trying to push McLaren towards their first constructors' championship title since 1998.

“Definitely what we can see is that they come with quite a lot of knowledge, no surprise," he told Autosport.

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“They've been part of great teams, great projects, and the good thing is that this knowledge, I think we see that it integrates with what we knew and with our know-how.

“So it's not like, ‘Oh we should do things in this way, which is opposite to what you do.’ Instead, it’s ‘we can do things in this way, which adds a little bit to what you do.’ This was quite refreshing in a way.

“So there's so much work that we need to go through, and it is very important to now have these high calibres leading their respective technical areas.

"This means that we have the capacity, the capability, and the competence to approach these three big projects with the horsepower required to compete at the top of Formula 1.”

Red Bull Ferrari McLaren Lando Norris Oscar Piastri Andrea Stella