McLaren F1 Team

Team Principal - Andrea Stella

Andrea Stella is an Italian engineer and team principal who has overseen McLaren's resurgence as a championship-winning team. Born in Orvieto, Italy, in 1971, Stella holds an aerospace engineering degree and began his F1 career at Ferrari in 2000, where he worked as Michael Schumacher's performance engineer during the team's dominant era. He later served as Kimi Raikkonen's race engineer when the Finn won the 2007 championship. Stella moved to McLaren in 2015, steadily climbing through the engineering ranks to become racing director before being appointed team principal in December 2022. His engineering-first leadership philosophy transformed McLaren's technical direction, and the results were dramatic - the team won the 2024 constructors' championship, ending a 26-year title drought. Stella is praised for his quiet authority, deep technical knowledge, and ability to get the best out of both his engineering team and drivers. His collaborative approach has created one of the strongest team cultures on the grid, with Norris and Piastri forming one of the most exciting driver pairings in the sport.

2026 Season

Career Stats

Team History

McLaren is one of the most storied names in all of motorsport. Founded by New Zealander Bruce McLaren in 1963, the team has been a fixture in Formula 1 for over six decades. Bruce McLaren was himself a talented driver and engineer who had been the youngest Grand Prix winner in history at the time. Tragically, he was killed in a testing accident at Goodwood in 1970, but the team he built lived on to become one of the sport's greatest.

McLaren's first golden era came in the 1970s and 1980s. Emerson Fittipaldi won the 1974 championship with the team, and James Hunt delivered a famously dramatic title in 1976 - the season immortalized in the film "Rush." But it was the partnership with Honda in the late 1980s that produced arguably the greatest team in F1 history. With Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna driving, McLaren won 15 of 16 races in the 1988 season, a dominance that has never been equaled. The intense rivalry between Prost and Senna became the defining storyline of an era and remains the most famous teammate battle in the sport's history.

The 1990s saw McLaren partner with Mercedes, and Mika Hakkinen won back-to-back championships in 1998 and 1999 with the iconic silver and black MP4-13 and MP4-14. Lewis Hamilton's remarkable debut season in 2007, when he nearly won the championship as a rookie, and his eventual title in 2008 marked another high point. However, a disastrous partnership with Honda from 2015 to 2017 nearly destroyed the team, producing some of the worst results in McLaren's history.

Under new CEO Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella, McLaren underwent a complete rebuild. The team gradually improved from 2019 onward, with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo scoring a memorable 1-2 finish at Monza in 2021. Norris developed into one of the sport's fastest drivers, and the addition of Oscar Piastri in 2023 gave McLaren one of the strongest driver lineups on the grid. The 2024 season was a breakthrough, with McLaren winning the constructors' championship for the first time since 1998. The 2026 season has started with mixed results - third in the standings with 46 points but both cars suffered double DNS in China due to power unit issues. The team remains in the fight for the championship, and with the Mercedes engine performing well, McLaren expects to challenge Mercedes and Ferrari as the season develops.

Current Drivers

Interesting Facts

• McLaren's 15 wins from 16 races in the 1988 season with Senna and Prost remains the highest win percentage in a single F1 season.
• The team is also a successful manufacturer of road-going supercars, with McLaren Automotive operating from the same Woking campus as the F1 team.
• McLaren is the second most successful team in F1 history behind Ferrari, with over 185 race wins and 12 drivers' championships.
• Bruce McLaren won his first Grand Prix at the 1959 United States GP at age 22, making him the youngest winner in F1 history at the time.
• The team's 2024 constructors' title ended a 26-year championship drought dating back to 1998.

Related Pages

• 2026 F1 Season Hub
• Lando Norris Driver Profile
• Oscar Piastri Driver Profile
• Mercedes - Engine supplier
• Ferrari - Historic rival
• Williams - Fellow Mercedes customer