The team principal ‘silly season’ at the end of last season resulted in a number of moves between teams in the paddock, but one move that was not expected was Andreas Seidl’s departure from McLaren to become CEO of Sauber.
This shock move left McLaren hunting for a new team principal but move quickly to promote Andrea Stella to the role from racing director.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has explained that the team wanted to keep some continuity, hence why they decided to promote from within rather than headhunting from the outside.
Having been in charge since the turn of the year, Stella has had a key role in preparing McLaren for the 2023 season, which gets underway in Bahrain in just a couple of weeks.
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Lando Norris has now praised his new boss for the job he has done so far, claiming that the feedback from the team has been positive to Stella’s time in charge following Seidl’s surprise departure.
“He is a guy who was an engineer so he obviously sees and understands things very much from a racing point of view,” he said.
“From what he has done, he has not been in that position long but he has done a very good job when boosting the team, making sure the morale is up, especially so early on in the season, giving a very clear and concise plan of combatting our issues and weakness and improving in all these areas.
“From the feedback I have got around the factory, he has settled in very quickly and people are very happy with the job and the feedback he has given.
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“No lack in confidence, I am very happy with how things are. A bit of a surprise at the time but I wish Andreas all the best.”
Seidl’s move to Sauber means that he will play a massive role in the upcoming Audi project, an opportunity which was perhaps too good to turn down for the German.
Stella will hope that his McLaren team can score than more than just the one podium this season, as the team prepare for new technology that could propel them to race wins in the next couple of seasons.