DECEMBER 28, 2024

Stella praises Management Support for success

Andrea Stella is clearly the face of McLaren’s amazing turnaround of form in the last couple of years, but the Italian continuesto refuse to take all the credit for the improved performance of the historic British team, pointing out that the new culture that has made the papaya orange cars into winning machines, comes all the way from the top, with McLaren CEO Zak Brown embracing a new way of motivating his staff.

Recognizing there’s a new mentality in place at McLaren, the Italian made it clear that, “the unlocking the peoples not only my contribution. I’ve often alked about the management and this is extremely important because you cannot do anything if you are a one-man show. Even if you are Team Principal, you need the support of your CEO, you need the support of the Chairman, you need the support of the shareholders, because we all need to go aligned, otherwise you don't create a culture.”

The former Head of Race Engineering added that, “As Team Principal I've always felt great support. We often have walking the factory as Zak walks the factory with me very, very often and we have several conversations witgh our staff.. Ultimately it is the accumulation of these numerous and numerous conversations that change the culture, build the trust in an organization and you see that. As a Team Principal, as a CEO, we made sure people in the factory, working in the background, are one of us, and thanks to our conversations with them, we build the way we want to be as a group. And then we will be the guarantee that the way we want to be, as a group, will be implemented.”

For Stella, “that's where you really make a difference as a Team Principal or a CEO. Not because you bring new staff into the team, but because what we agree, all together, will be guaranteed, we are responsible to make sure that this is brought to life.”