McLaren won their first constructors’ championship since 1998 at the 2024 F1 season finale in Abu Dhabi after beating their historic rival, Ferrari. Amidst the jubilant celebrations, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso conveyed his congratulations to team principal Andrea Stella on McLaren F1 breaking their 26-year title drought. However, their journey in the past decade has been anything but smooth sailing.
When Stella joined McLaren as Head of Race Operations and Performance Director in 2015, the team finished the season in a lowly ninth place despite having two former champions—Jenson Button and Alonso—at the wheel.
Before securing their ninth title last weekend, McLaren’s patch of underperformance continued for years as they never managed to finish higher than third in the championship standings.
The Woking-based team also encountered hardships off track during the COVID-19 pandemic as they furloughed many of their F1 team members and introduced pay cuts. Additionally, they put major infrastructure projects, including a new wind tunnel and a new simulator, on hold due to financial uncertainty.
After selling shares to American sports investment group MSP Sports Capital at the end of 2020, an investment of £185 million ($235.8 million) helped the British team stay afloat and begin their journey back to competitiveness.
Stella, who assumed the role of the team principal in 2022, has played a crucial role in helping McLaren get back to winning ways. The triumphant Italian spoke at length post-race about what it meant to lift the biggest trophy after enduring tough times both on and off the track.
In his post-race interview, Alonso also shared why he was particularly pleased that McLaren F1 returned to the top of the sport at the helm of Stella, his former race engineer at Ferrari from 2010 through to 2014.
Stable management enabled McLaren to compete at the top
Remarking how they were languishing five seconds behind the pole-sitter in the first qualifying session of the year in 2015, a delighted Stella noted how far McLaren has come since he joined the papaya family a decade ago and described his journey as nearly a full circle.
Highlighting their resilience, the 53-year-old also talked about how stable management and their faith in the Woking-based squad allowed them to build on the investments and deliver superb results on track.
“Definitely, the time I joined McLaren means that I’ve, and now, 2024, end of the season, celebrating a championship, means, if you want, that we have gone almost through a circle.
“I often mention to the team the fact that [in] the first race in 2015 in Australia, between our lap in Q1 and the pole position, there were five seconds. Three seconds to the best lap in Q1 and five seconds to the pole position.
“And we have gone all the way. We have gone all the way thanks to great resilience, thanks to great belief. I would like to thank in particular Zak Brown, Paul Walsh, all our shareholders for their faith in the change.
“Faith in the change that gradually they have implemented and have put McLaren in a very solid position from a management point of view.
“And when you are solid from a management point of view, when you are trusted, when you start to be able to deliver the investments that were necessary, then you can compete. You can compete at the top.”
1,000 members operating at their highest level gave McLaren the edge on track
Furthermore, Stella elaborated that a thousand people working at a very high level enabled them to achieve their goals in terms of performance, operations, and reliability. Acknowledging their hard work over these past ten years, the Italian also sounded optimistic that the 2024 season only marks the beginning of a new era of McLaren dominance.
“And I think the final bit of this circle, if you want, came through the people. Unlocking the people, which is something that I’ve said several times.
“I’m not sure if it’s something that, you know, who listens can actually appreciate what it means if you are not part of seeing such a rapid progress of 1,000 people. But that’s what has happened.
“Because you cannot achieve these standards, these performance, these operations, this reliability, without every one of the 1,000 people operating at a very high level. That’s what we have gone through in these 10 years at McLaren.
“But hopefully this is not the end point. This is just a starting point for more to come in the future.”
Alonso happy that Stella avenged their 2010 Abu Dhabi loss with McLaren F1 title win
On the topic of McLaren clinching the title in a closely contested battle, Alonso proclaimed that he was pleased with the outcome due to his personal relationship with Stella—his race engineer at Ferrari, who then headed to McLaren F1 with him in 2015.
The Aston Martin driver also revealed that he wished Stella well on the grid before the race in Abu Dhabi and that he reminded him of the heartbreak they endured in 2010.
Heading into the final race of the season in 2010, the Spaniard was leading the Drivers’ Championship by 8 points over Mark Webber, with Sebastian Vettel a further 7 back.
However, due to a strategy blunder by Ferrari, Alonso found himself trapped behind Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and lost the title by 4 points to the German.
“I’m a very good friend of Andrea,” Alonso said after Sunday’s race at the Yas Marina Circuit.
“You know, in a way, I brought him to McLaren when I joined McLaren.
“So I told him, before the race what Abu Dhabi took from our hands in 2010, hopefully today it gives something back to you, and it did.
“Happy for him, he deserved it. He’s a very clever guy. And as I said, McLaren is an example for many things now.”
When asked whether he was taking credit for Stella’s arrival to McLaren and the transformation of the team, Alonso quipped, “Yes. I should be part of his [Stella’s] bonus.”
