Insisting that there isn’t a primary driver at McLaren, Andrea Stella explains why he’s completely in opposition to using crew orders.
Granted, Oscar Piastri has been requested to yield to his teammate on a few events lately, and there stay doubts over among the strategic calls which have appeared to favour Lando Norris. Nevertheless, Stella is detest to make crew orders a daily incidence, not a lot by way of 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 situation that works properly for the media and in pub chatter, however it’s not good if you handle a Formulation 1 crew since you even have to contemplate the long run.
“I am unable to 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 need to be ready 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 imagine we should always work in Formulation 1, for I’m conscious that advanced conditions can all the time come up. After I hear folks speaking concerning the mathematical method of the sort ‘Oscar any more should put Lando behind’, I reply that Lando himself would not need Oscar to make himself accessible.
“My problem is to have the ability to rely on a united and compact group,” he provides, “I am unable to make sure that we are going to all the time do a very good job. However we should all the time be clear that we’re right here to proceed working and constructing, not with the intention of getting a wonderful weekend, however to do properly within the years to return.
“Driver administration have to be seen within the context of the competitiveness of the automobile,” he continues. “You all the time have to have a administration line, however if you happen to compete for tenth and eleventh place, all of your efforts are directed in direction of attaining competitiveness. It’s if you get to combating for the highest positions that the situation modifications.
“Our focus has all the time been on most collaboration. It is because there’s a predominant 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 facet is non-negotiable, in any state of affairs.
“We have now all the time approached driver administration, and typically, the foundations by which we go on the monitor in keeping with some rules: the primary, as I mentioned, is the curiosity of the crew, the second is sportsmanship, or if you happen to desire, integrity. These are crucial values, we need to act pretty and appropriately in direction of each our drivers, and this facet turns into much more essential when you may have two abilities who’ve the talents and the entire package deal wanted to win races.
“We have now labored onerous to be the place we’re at the moment, we’ve labored onerous to have and develop Oscar, in addition to Lando.
“When you may have two drivers who work collectively, the expansion of the crew advantages, and since we had been capable of present Lando and Oscar with a aggressive automobile, that’s from the Miami Grand Prix, McLaren has change into the crew that has scored probably the most factors within the constructors’ championship.
“While you get to be on this state of affairs, you need to outline a state of affairs that, I feel, many want to have: how do you handle the drivers? We all the time begin from our rules, we do not negotiate them.”
