The ‘painful’ experience spurring McLaren on to F1 title glory

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has reflected on the “emotional toughness” he developed by experiencing “the most painful day” of his F1 career, something he hopes to leave as part of his legacy in Woking.

Ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the papaya squad is staring down a first constructors’ championship since 1998.

As such, the Italian was asked about the F1 drivers’ crown brutally slipping through Fernando Alonso’s fingers at the Yas Marina Circuit in 2010, when Stella was the 43-year-old’s race engineer at Ferrari.

Heading into that season finale, the now-Aston Martin driver held an eight point advantage over Mark Webber, with the Australian’s Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel 15 points behind the Spaniard.

However, Alonso, having qualified third behind the German driver and Lewis Hamilton, got frustratingly stuck behind the Renault of Vitaly Petrov. Unable to pass, he could only finish seventh whilst the Vettel claimed victory and the first of his four-consecutive titles.

14 years later, McLaren heads into the final race of the season with a comfortable advantage over second-placed Ferrari.

Holding a 21-point lead, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked out the front row of the grid in qualifying, with Carlos Sainz having to settle for third.

Charles Leclerc could only manage P14 as he was eliminated in Q2. To make matters worse for Ferrari, he will line up P19 after his 10-place penalty for an energy store change is applied.

Drawing upon his bitter experience in what was just the second Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Stella stressed the importance of staying present. The 53-year-old also shared how reassured he had been by his McLaren team members.

“First of all, the reference to 2010 is a reference to 14 years ago,” he replied to media including RacingNews365 when asked about losing out with Alonso. “Before then, I had done already 10 years which means this is my 25th season.

“And there’s one benefit, not many others, of having done 25 seasons in Formula 1 is that you have the experience, and you have the experience even in terms of mindset.

“You know that in these kind of circumstances, you just have to stay in the present, enjoy the present. Don’t think too far, don’t think of tomorrow, unless it’s because we want to know what are we going to do for the strategy – it needs to be functional to execute in the race. But really, you keep your emotions and your mind in the present.

“This is something that I’ve been actually quite impressed by the team, because when I was approaching people to talk about how we were gonna face this last race of the of the season, it was actually the team that normally told me: ‘Don’t worry, Andrea, we will do what we’ve always done’, and this gave me a great sense of reassurance, and I really appreciated the maturity that I saw in the team.”

Finding pride in defeat

Ultimately, Stella feels the hardship endured at the Yas Marina Circuit with Ferrari and Alonso all those years ago has helped shape him into the person and team principal he is today.

He is determined for that part of his career to have a positive influence, underlining the pride he and the two-time F1 drivers’ champion have for what they achieved together that year.

“For me, going back to this track 14 years ago at the time, it was potentially the most painful day in my Formula 1 career,” Stella added.

“But if I look back now, and I’ve talked about this with Fernando a couple of times, we actually feel proud of what we have achieved in 2010, because we are proud that we were here at the last race – in a season in which most of the time we didn’t enjoy any technical advantage – and it was thanks to great execution and great driving by Fernando that we could be fighting for the championship at the last race. 

“And ultimately, over time, while you are proud of your victories, sometimes when you don’t win, it’s what counts the most to be what we are today.

“I hope that in some of the learnings that season, and even the emotional toughness that you gain by going through those moments, I’ve been able to bring something with me in my career, and hopefully also leave this as part of my contribution to McLaren.”