The dance seats in the domes of the teams of the Formula 1 has had a surprise guest on the morning of this Tuesday: after confirming the departure of Andreas Seidl to Sauber ( Alfa Romeo) to carry out the transformation to Audi, Andrea Stella has been appointed as the new director of McLaren.
The until now director of races has been in Woking since 2015, where he began working as head of operations to later take charge of performance management. Already in 2019, he became executive director of racing.
He came to McLaren hand in hand with Fernando Alonso after the two worked side by side in Ferrari. The two-time world champion landed at the Scuderia in 2010, where Stella had previously worked with Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen.
He became a race engineer for the Asturian between 2010 and 2014, experiencing many happy moments, but also other very sad ones such as the last races of 2010 and 2012 where Alonso touched the three-time championship.
Stella’s ‘request’ to Fernando will remain for posterity after Ferrari’s rude error in Abu Dhabi 2010which cost the Oviedo crown.
“Fernando makes the best of your talent, we know how great it is”his engineer told him after the Spanish driver left after Petrov and with a lot of traffic ahead.
The good harmony and relationship between the two was reflected in the supreme compliment that Stella dedicated to him in 2014: “With Fernando, his strong point is that, basically, It has no weak points! He is strong as a driver in all conditions, from dry to extreme rain, and outside the car he is very consistent and mentally strong, which is very important in modern Formula 1.”
“Fernando is the most complete driver I’ve ever had. Michael was very strong and Kimi was very fast but he has no weak points“, said Alonso’s trusted man, who ended up packing with him towards McLaren.