On a weekend on which fanatical home supporters will bask under the Imola sunshine on the hills surrounding this gloriously old-school circuit, desperate to see their beloved Ferrari team turn a corner, it is in fact an Italian donning papaya who is brimming with glee amid his team’s current dominance of Formula One.
Andrea Stella, the former Ferrari engineer now thriving in his role as McLaren team principal, is usually talkative. A deeply respected presence in the paddock, the 54-year-old is candid and uninhibited in his analysis and opinions. Friday’s FIA press conference was no different.
His first answer to moderator Tom Clarkson was more than six minutes long and encompassed a range of topics, from his love of Imola in what is set to be the circuit’s final furlong on the F1 calendar to a thoughtful tribute to Fernando Alonso’s long-serving physio Fabrizio Borra, who died this week.
Yet his biggest smirk was saved for a question about McLaren’s rivals – left languishing in the lurch after the first six races of the season – complaining about suspicious elements of this year’s McLaren rocketship.
McLaren’s long-awaited re-emergence as the top team last year was met with questions surrounding their so-called “flexi-wings”. In recent weeks, a theory regarding the team’s tyre temperature management – Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have been preserving their rubber better than the rest of the field – was met with ridicule by McLaren CEO Zak Brown at the last round in Miami.
Was water being injected into the tyre rubber to cool them down? McLaren laughed off the suggestions. And Brown could not help but mock the suggestions, with a water bottle on the pit wall in Florida labelled “tire pressure”. American spelling and all.
An official complaint to the FIA was dismissed by the sport’s governing body on Wednesday.
“For us, it’s good news when our rivals get their focus on us rather than on themselves,” Stella said on Friday, with Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur unable to hide a small snigger himself.
“[When they focus] on, allegedly, stuff present in our car… effectively they are not even present.
“Let’s say, flexi-wings, like a front wing deflection like everyone has, it has nothing to do with the reason McLaren is very competitive.
“So, I hope that in the future there will be more of this kind of saga, because it means that our rivals keep focusing on the wrong things.
“This is just good news for us.”
Eight out of the 10 teams this weekend in Imola – the first European race of the season – have brought upgrades, including all the leading contenders. But the initial impressions on the timing screens on Friday showed little reason to foresee change come the race on Sunday.
In both practice sessions, McLaren secured a one-two placing with championship leader Piastri, who is ahead by 16 points, once more holding a slim advantage over his teammate Norris.
McLaren’s status as the quickest team, which is now hitting the 12-month mark, has undoubtedly left Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull reeling. Questioned further on Friday about why teams could not replicate McLaren’s speed, Stella was comically stroked on the arm by Vasseur, who was clearly in a playful mood.
“I would like to give the wrong answer here, so I put all our rivals down the wrong route!” Stella joked.
“The only thing I can say is that, for me, over the years in Formula 1, I have learnt that you have to focus on yourself and focus on the fundamentals.
“I think when you get too distracted by what the others are doing, it’s normally an alarm bell that you ring in your factory and should remind you to go back to the basics.”
Stella has done a remarkable job at McLaren since replacing Andreas Seidl as team principal in the 2022-23 off-season. Key decisions, such as the hiring of the former Red Bull designer Rob Marshall and the promotion of aerodynamicist Peter Prodromou, have resulted in a car that can’t be caught in normal dry conditions.
Brown, the big boss of the team as an entity, has regularly heaped praise on Stella, calling him the “best team principal on the grid”. Many others are more spokespeople than engineering figures, but Stella is cut from a different cloth. His direct and engaging persona is a massive feather in McLaren’s cap.
And if practice is anything to go by, McLaren will take some stopping here in northern Italy. Instead, the question should not be which team can take pole, but rather, which driver? Norris has endured a torrid month or so – can he turn it around on one of his best tracks?
Possibly so. But, increasingly, it’s looking like an intra-team battle. Max Verstappen has the raw speed but not the machinery to match; George Russell is in a similar situation. Yet for Ferrari, there were more problems on Friday with both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc complaining about their brakes.
Another problem in the in-tray of Vasseur, who will be unable to cover up his team’s failings with humour for much longer.
The Emilia-Romagna GP starts at 2pm on 18 May, with coverage on Sky Sports
