Andrea Stella used his first press conference as McLaren team principal to explain how he plans to push the team to the front of the grid.
It was announced on Tuesday that Andreas Seidl would be leaving the team after four years. He had a contract until 2025, but had already made it clear earlier in the year that he would be leaving at the end of that deal to join Sauber when it becomes the Audi works team in 2026.
That process has now been accelerated – Seidl has joined Alfa Romeo with immediate effect as chief executive. His first task will be to recruit a new team principal, after Frederic Vasseur was recruited by Ferrari to replace the outgoing Mattia Binotto.
Left without a team principal after that round of musical chairs, McLaren has promoted executive director of racing Stella to the role. In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, attended by Mirror Sport, the Italian explained some of the changes that will be made in the coming months and years to push the team forward.
"I will be close to the core objectives of the team, which is to build a quick car and race that car effectively while on track," he explained. Driver Lando Norris will very much hope he can deliver on that pledge, having shown signs of frustration over being stuck in the midfield.
Going into further detail, Stella told reporters: "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."
