McLaren boss Andrea Stella has revealed he welcomes the “problem” of having to control the team’s drivers that would come with a Formula 1 title challenge in 2025.
The Woking-based squad enters the upcoming campaign as the reigning Constructors’ Champions but desperate to take the Drivers’ title having missed out last term.
McLaren was made to rue multiple mistakes as it squandered the chance to beat Max Verstappen to the crown amid Red Bull’s drastic regression in competitiveness.
One criticism aimed at McLaren was the team’s hesitation to prioritise Lando Norris’ bid earlier, costing him vital ground in both the Hungarian and Italian Grands Prix.
Oscar Piastri’s brash opening-lap pass on his team-mate at Monza prompted McLaren to impose team orders to assist Norris, but it came too late to rival Verstappen.
But having ended the campaign with the benchmark package, McLaren is poised to endure more headaches in 2025 as Norris and Piastri fight to gain the upper hand.
Stella, though, is eager to have that issue to contend with, as he insisted there’ll be no change to how McLaren manages the situation despite the stick that it received.
Put to him that McLaren will begin 2025 as the favourites with two individuals striving to be the team’s best bet for the Drivers’ title, Stella told media including Motorsport Week: “First of all, I hope you are right. We do want to have that kind of problem.
“We worked very hard to have a problem of having a car in condition to win races and two drivers in condition to win races.
“And we know that this one in Formula 1 always comes with some complications.
“But these are complications that we have already faced this season to some extent. I think we have always approached that in a cohesive way.
“Both drivers were always fully aware that we need to find solutions that, first of all, put the interests of the team and then the interests of the drivers.
“So far, I think this has been a very positive process,” he continued. “It’s a process that we plan to carry over onto next season.”
McLaren aiming to make quick start in 2025
McLaren has remained adamant that it was the side’s sluggish start to 2024 as Red Bull dominated proceedings that cost it more than the mishaps that it committed.
With that in mind, Stella has accepted that McLaren must ensure it hits the ground running prior to even considering the possible intra-team complications that come.
“But before we think about this problem, we need to think… We call it [a] problem, potentially it’s more of an opportunity,” he explained.
“Our focus is to make sure that from a technical point of view, we give Lando and Oscar a car that is in condition to fight for the championship.
“Because had we done this at the start of this season, without having some underperformance in the early races of the season, then we would have been in condition to fight for the Drivers’ Championship for longer.”
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