Michael Schumacher engineer to McLaren team principal, who is Andrea Stella? : PlanetF1

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McLaren have a new man in charge as Andrea Stella makes the move to replace Andreas Seidl, but who is the 51-year-old Italian?

Although not quite a public figure to the extent that Zak Brown and Seidel were, Stella is a big part of McLaren’s furniture.

The Italian was born in 1971 and would go on to graduate from Sapienza University in Rome with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering before joining Ferrari at the turn of the millennium.

Stella could hardly have wished for a better time joining the sport as he became a performance engineer for Michael Schumacher from 2002 to 2006 and then later did the same role for Kimi Raikkonen from 2006 to 2008.

In 2009 he became a race engineer for the Finn and filled the same role when Fernando Alonso joined the team in 2010.

Stella left Ferrari in 2015 to move to McLaren where he started as Head of Racing Operations before becoming Performance Director in 2018.

In 2019 he became Director of Racing, and it was his role until Tuesday’s announcement with Brown saying Stella was his first choice for the role.

Although Stella is yet to hold a senior position in the sport, he certainly has enough Formula 1 experience for McLaren to trust him.

During a press conference with select media including PlanetF1.com, Stella was asked what he learned from previous bosses such as Jean Todt, Stefano Domenicali and Seidl, and the 51-year-old said he learned something different from each of them.

“You learn from anyone,” said Stella. “I think for me, that’s a very powerful philosophy, especially when you can work together with strong personalities, very qualified people. There’s a lot to learn.

“First of all, with Jean Todt, his incredible dedication to the team and his role, I think is something that gave me an idea of ​​what commitment means.

“He had this early imprint on my Formula 1 career and I had the privilege of working in such a successful environment as the early 2000s.

“For Stefano, I think Stefano is definitely a people person. Formula 1 is about engineering and operations, but ultimately it is about people.

“So I think from Stefano, I understood some of the elements and qualities that need to be highly valued as a team manager, and also some ways of interacting with people based on respect, listening and just managing ego.

Andreas, he also brought some engineering expertise from previous experience so this was very helpful for me in shaking up the race team, making progress in some areas like pit stops.

“I think when we talk about the progress McLaren has made in terms of pit stops, I would like to acknowledge Andreas’ contribution from that point of view.

“So I think what I take away from collaborating with Andreas is this: the importance of knowing the business, the importance of knowing the technical, engineering and operational aspects, so that you can train people and you can support people in the most effective way to make progress.”

Read more: How Ferrari’s move for Fred Fasser got McLaren into action

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