Insisting that there isn’t any primary driver at McLaren, Andrea Stella explains why he’s completely in opposition to the usage of crew orders.
Granted, Oscar Piastri has been requested to yield to his teammate on a few events just lately, and there stay doubts over a number of the strategic calls which have appeared to favour Lando Norris. Nonetheless, Stella is detest to make crew orders a daily prevalence, not a lot when it comes to the end result of the 2024 season, however transferring ahead.
The Italian feels that giving one driver precedence over his teammate will solely result in future issues for the crew.
“We do not have a primary driver or a quantity two,” Stella tells Autosport. “It is a state of affairs that works effectively for the media and in pub chatter, nevertheless it’s not good while you handle a Components 1 crew since you even have to think about the longer term.
“I can not know if we are going to win this season,” admits the Italian, who has already confirmed that the all-important, prize cash deciding constructors’ standings is what actually issues, “however I’m conscious that we wish to be able to win in ’25, ’26 and ’27. And if in managing the 2024 season I find yourself destroying the stability, I’ll find yourself not having a stable base within the following years.
“That is the best way I consider we should always work in Components 1, for I’m conscious that complicated conditions can all the time come up. Once I hear folks speaking in regards to the mathematical method of the kind ‘Oscar any longer should put Lando behind’, I reply that Lando himself would not need Oscar to make himself obtainable.
“My problem is to have the ability to rely on a united and compact group,” he provides, “I can not make sure that we are going to all the time do a great job. However we should all the time be clear that we’re right here to proceed working and constructing, not with the purpose of getting an excellent weekend, however to do effectively within the years to come back.
“Driver administration should be seen within the context of the competitiveness of the automotive,” he continues. “You all the time must have a administration line, however in the event you compete for tenth and eleventh place, all of your efforts are directed in direction of attaining competitiveness. It’s while you get to preventing for the highest positions that the state of affairs adjustments.
“Our focus has all the time been on most collaboration. It is because there’s a primary goal, one thing larger than the crew principal, one thing larger than Lando and one thing larger than Oscar, and that’s the curiosity of the crew, of McLaren. This side is non-negotiable, in any scenario.
“We’ve got all the time approached driver administration, and normally, the foundations by which we go on the monitor in accordance with some ideas: the primary, as I mentioned, is the curiosity of the crew, the second is sportsmanship, or in the event you choose, integrity. These are crucial values, we wish to act pretty and accurately in direction of each our drivers, and this side turns into much more necessary when you could have two abilities who’ve the abilities and the entire bundle wanted to win races.
“We’ve got labored laborious to be the place we’re as we speak, we have now labored laborious to have and develop Oscar, in addition to Lando.
“When you could have two drivers who work collectively, the expansion of the crew advantages, and since we have been capable of present Lando and Oscar with a aggressive automotive, that’s from the Miami Grand Prix, McLaren has develop into the crew that has scored probably the most factors within the constructors’ championship.
“Once you get to be on this scenario, you must outline a scenario that, I feel, many want to have: how do you handle the drivers? We all the time begin from our ideas, we do not negotiate them.”
