McLaren F1's Stella: Building Success Like a Growing Forest

Stella highlights McLaren F1’s growth-focused philosophy, likening team development to a resilient, ever-growing forest.

Andrea Stella believes that McLaren F1 has embraced the correct philosophy regarding its vision and the approach to advancing the team. He employs a mantra suggesting that a forest continues to grow even if it loses trees, likening this to his team’s progress despite various setbacks and mistakes.

“At McLaren, we often say internally that what’s crucial is to keep building, and building, and building,” explained Stella. “And sometimes, when a tree falls, although it’s quite loud, what matters is to think about the silently growing forest.”

“Sometimes, that falling tree provides a wealth of information to help the forest grow. This is the lesson I take from the episode at the Hungarian Grand Prix, which I share quite openly with you, and it truly reflects the culture we have at McLaren.”

The Italian cited the Hungary example as he explained that had Lando Norris immediately accepted instructions from his engineer Will Joseph, he would have been allowed by the team to contest Oscar Piastri towards the race’s end. Thus, this learning is crucial for the entire team and is something Stella reflects on philosophically.

“It’s a new situation for Lando, who is battling for a championship. I think he just needed to realise, ‘what does this mean for me, being in this situation in the car,’ and I believe Will, through this dialogue, aided that thought process.”

“As I said at the time, I had 100% confidence in the people to ensure the race finished in the correct order. But I think it was a bit of a missed opportunity for Lando because if he had swapped positions immediately, he would have had, in fact, 20 laps to fight for the win.”

But McLaren has drawn broader conclusions from this episode, particularly the need to anticipate all scenarios before the race: “One point we take into account is that we should better prepare the situation, before the race, so that you’re never caught preparing the flight plan while already flying.”

“This is a golden rule in all challenging situations, and it’s a responsibility of the team—it’s my responsibility. We approached the race having planned many, many things, but this hadn’t been discussed, so it’s something we take into account as a team.”