Brown reveals: Stella first rejected McLaren team principal role
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown once made Andrea Stella an offer he couldn’t refuse, and yet the outfit’s team principal did just that, much to Brown’s astonishment.
McLaren’s resurgence in Formula 1 is a story of perseverance, bold decision-making, and leadership. At the heart of it all is Stella, the man who guided Team Papaya in 2024 to their first Constructors' Championship in decades.
But remarkably, the Italian’s ascent to the top wasn’t inevitable – in fact, he initially turned down the opportunity to lead McLaren’s F1 team when Brown first approached him for the role.
A Hesitant Leader
Stella, who joined McLaren in 2015 after a long tenure at Ferrari, had held various senior positions within the Woking-based team.
His meticulous approach and quiet confidence made him an integral figure in McLaren’s game plans, but he was not immediately convinced that he was the right person to lead the team.
“I had asked Andrea Stella to become the team principal back in 2019 or 2020 but he felt he wasn't ready yet,” Brown revealed to James Allen on the latter’s F1 podcast.
“Andrea has very little ego, he's not one of these individuals that jumps at ‘it would be great to be team principal’.
“He just felt he wasn't ready, even though I felt he was.”
For Brown, who had a clear vision for McLaren’s future, Stella was always the ideal candidate. But Stella’s reluctance forced the McLaren CEO to rethink his approach.
The team continued with its existing leadership structure - helmed by Andreas Seidl - until the opportunity arose again a few years later.
“So the second time around, I had the opportunity to make some changes, I did [with the] technical director, team principal, head of aero,” Brown explained.
“I convinced Andrea, but when I made him the offer, it wasn’t an immediate yes. He had to sleep on it over the weekend and get comfortable with it.”
Stella’s characteristic thoughtfulness won out in the end, and he accepted the challenge, officially taking the reins as team principal ahead of the 2023 season.
What followed was a journey of resilience, trust, and a calculated rebuild that would ultimately lead to McLaren’s crowning achievement in 2024.
Navigating the Storm
Stella’s tenure as team principal got off to a rocky start. At the beginning of the 2023 season, McLaren publicly admitted that they would be starting the year on the back foot.
It was a bold move, one that few teams in Formula 1 would have the courage to make. But for Stella, transparency was key to managing expectations.
“When he jumped in, he got real serious, real quick,” Brown said.
“He identified that we were going to have big problems, which I suspected, hence the change.
“He made a very brave decision, which was to tell everyone we were going to have a terrible start to the year, which I think was the right decision because everyone was going to be able to figure that out 30 days later.”
Stella’s prediction was correct. The first few races of 2023 were a struggle for McLaren. But behind the scenes, a meticulously crafted development plan was already in motion.
The Italia engineer and his team worked tirelessly to refine the car, knowing that their upgrades —due to arrive later in the season – would be the key to their resurgence.
©McLaren
“He was spot on, we were terrible,” Brown admitted. “But at the same time, we knew that development was really starting to ramp up.
“We had to manage people, externally and internally, to wait for this latest, greatest upgrade in Austria and hope that it worked.”
It did. McLaren’s performance took a dramatic turn, climbing up the pecking order as the season progressed.
From Underdog to Title Contender
The work put in behind the scenes was finally paying off, and by the time the 2024 season arrived, McLaren was no longer an underdog – it was a title contender.
Under Stella’s leadership, McLaren executed a flawless campaign in 2024, blending technical excellence with strategic brilliance.
The team – led on the track by the abundantly talented duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri – outperformed their rivals, executing key race strategies and delivering upgrades at the perfect moments to maintain their edge.
By the season’s end, they were crowned Constructors' Champions—a testament to Stella’s patience, vision, and refusal to take the easy road to success.
In hindsight, Brown’s instincts were right all along – Andrea Stella was always the man to lead McLaren back to glory. But true to his nature, Stella only accepted the role when he knew he was ready.
His journey from reluctant leader to championship-winning team principal is a reminder that sometimes, the best decisions are the ones that take time.
Read also:
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via X and Facebook
The post Brown reveals: Stella first rejected McLaren team principal role appeared first on F1i.com.