Andrea Stella admitted he has been "reluctant" in the past to embrace the public side of leadership in Formula 1 – but knows that will have to change now he has the top job at McLaren.
The Italian was unveiled on Tuesday as the new team principal, following the departure of Andreas Seidl. The German had privately communicated his desire to leave for Sauber at the end of his contract in 2025, but Frederic Vasseur's Ferrari move sped up the process.
And so chief executive Zak Brown decided to promote Stella from his previous role as executive director of racing. In that job he already had some of the responsibilities that many team principals would oversee, but now he is the public face of McLaren's racing management team he will have to become more public.
In his first press conference as McLaren team principal, attended by Mirror Sport, Stella said he is bracing himself for the media responsibilities and public profile that comes with the job. And he even admitted he had thought about whether he wanted to take that on before accepting the role.
The Italian said: "The outside elements of the team principal job were something I needed to reflect on. I've been reluctant – I've just focused on my job, that was my focus. So I gave it a little thought, but I guess it's about preparation, getting familiar and being honest. These are characteristics that I will use for my interactions on the outside."
Stella takes over at McLaren at a key time for the team. Significant progress has been made over the last few years, but that appeared to stall a little in the 2022 season as an inconsistent car and Daniel Ricciardo's struggles contributed to the team finishing in fifth behind midfield rivals Alpine.
The ambition remains the same – Brown has been bullish in his claims that his team wants to and will be back in contention for race wins and championships in the coming years. But Stella knows more needs to be done behind the scenes to make that happen.
He added: "In terms of areas of opportunity, where we would definitely like to make a step forward is in delivering a quick car. Some of the reasons why we haven't been able to do that so far, we know they are quite structural. There are good investments going on at McLaren so that we can overcome these limitations.
"We have important infrastructure coming to fruition in 2023, like the wind tunnel and the new simulator – completing this business is one of my priorities. At the same time, we want to make some areas of the team stronger.
"We know Formula 1 is fundamentally an aerodynamic game, so there will be no surprise that one of the areas we want to get stronger is on the aerodynamics side. I think we have incredibly talent there, but possibly we need to expand the manpower in that area – that's also one of the projects that is ongoing."
