15/12/2022
NEWS STORY
Zak Brown says the entire McLaren team is in favour of Andrea Stella's appointment as team principal following the departure of Andreas Seidl.
Joining Ferrari in 2000, at the very start of the Maranello outfit's golden era, the Orvietto-born engineer served as track engineer to Michael Schumacher throughout his championship winning time and then to Kimi Raikkonen.
In 2010 he was appointed race engineer to Fernando Alonso and subsequently followed the Spaniard to McLaren in 2015.
In 2017 he was appointed Race Operations Manager for the Woking squad, then Performance Director and from 2020 Executive Racing Director.
However, the sudden departure of Seidl, who many see as key to McLaren's revival following its disastrous time with Honda, has left fans wondering if the team might become destabilised and lose ground to its rivals.
"The response I've had from the racing team about Andrea's appointment has been predictably very well received," Zak Brown told members of the media in a video call. "And I think as we try and build a team to get back to competing for the world championship it has to be a team effort, and this feels like we won't miss a beat versus introducing someone from the outside because it takes quite a way to get up to speed.
"If we didn't have Andrea that maybe would have been an alternative to look at," he admitted, "but it was very clear to us very quickly that Andrea was who we wanted to have run the team.
"I think any team or business for that matter, it's about the collection of individuals and the ways of working," he added. "Andreas did a great job but I have no doubt Andrea will pick up from today and carry us forward.
"Andrea was always our number one choice to lead the team moving forward," said the American. "That all came together quite rapidly and here we are with Andrea now as our Team Principal, which myself, our drivers and our team is extremely excited about.
"Andrea obviously has a wealth of experience, not only with McLaren, but a rich history with Ferrari, so is someone who knew the team inside-out. He is a very hands-on person in the racing team, which was of high interest to me and the shareholders.
"We wanted to have someone leading the team who would get their hands dirty, so to speak. We're very excited."