McLaren CEO Zak Brown has revealed why he opted for a change of team principal as Andreas Seidl was replaced by Andrea Stella.

Former McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl left the Woking-based squad after the 2022 season in order to join the burgeoning Audi effort, with Andrea Stella stepping up into the role of team boss.

Zak Brown reveals thought process behind Andrea Stella/Andreas Seidl swap

Seidl had appeared to make a good impression on McLaren‘s performance, with the team returning to winning ways in 2021 as Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris took a 1-2 finish at Monza, but McLaren slipped back to fifth in the championship in 2022.

Brown has revealed how he decided to make a change in the team’s organisational structure after that season, resulting in Seidl leaving before Stella stepped up into the role.

Speaking to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, the McLaren CEO was addressing how his team’s much stronger F1 2024 season – in which the team won its first Constructors’ Championship since 1998 – came about as a result of critical personnel changes since he’d taken over as CEO in 2018.

“The most important one was handing over the team management to Andrea Stella,” he said of the most important milestones on the way to the team’s success.

“The process started back in 2019 but was disrupted. My first team principal Eric Boullier never got a fair chance. He came at a time of great unrest.

“He had done a good job at Lotus, but with us, he was in the eye of a hurricane. His successor, Jost Capito, was not the right man for the job. He was actually already gone before he started.

“In 2019, we had Gil de Ferran, Pat Fry, Peter Prodromou, Neil Houldey, and Andrea Stella in our management team. This team was responsible for our success in 2021. They built the 2020 car, which was adopted as the basis for 2021 due to Covid restrictions.

“The only new thing was that we replaced the Renault engine with one from Mercedes. Andreas Seidl and James Key joined us in 2020 and initially took over the 2021 project as it had already been designed by our 2019 squad.

“In 2022, we moved backward again and that was the work of the new people. When the upgrade didn’t work at the French GP in the middle of the season and I didn’t like the response from the management team, I realised that we had to pull the plug.

“That’s why I wanted to go back to my squad from 2019. Andreas then got the chance with Audi. I could have kept him, but I wanted a change in the team.”

Stella, who revealed after the team’s success in Abu Dhabi that he had spoken at length with the late Gil De Ferran about taking on the role of team boss, brought about the changes necessary to make the final steps forward, Brown explained.

“In contrast to 2019, Andrea Stella now felt ready to take on the position of Team Principal,” he said.

“We talked about his new role for a week. Then he felt comfortable with it. He is very honest with himself and not one to ride an ego trip.

“His first job at the beginning of 2023 was to reorganise the management level. He managed to get the maximum potential out of everyone. He told me right from the start that we would have a terrible start to the 2023 season. And that’s how it was. And then you told me about this incredible development curve of the car. It was almost too good to be true. But they kept their word.”

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The moment Brown realised that Stella had succeeded in his goal was at the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix. Now regarded as the race at which McLaren became a proper frontrunner again, the team’s comprehensive upgrade package succeeded straight out of the box – in stark contrast to what had happened under Seidl in France the year before.

“Completely out of character, Andrea publicly announced that the race in Austria would be the turning point for us,” Brown said.

“It actually worked there with one car, but I was still sceptical. We always had quite good results on this track.

“Then came Silverstone and both cars were at the front. I knew then that they had told me the truth. And things have been going uphill ever since.

“We are actually a year ahead of schedule. The current car was developed in the old wind tunnel. The new one didn’t go online until 2023. Rob Marshall didn’t start working with us until the beginning of 2024.”

With the rebuild path now seemingly complete as McLaren usurped Red Bull to win the title in F1 2024, Brown revealed how, of the 1000 employees at Woking when he’d arrived as CEO in 2018, “only 50 were a problem” and, having been able “to rely on the other 950”, now have a team with which to challenge for more titles.

With Stella, Brown said, he has found his ideal sparring partner to keep the team competing at the front.

“You can’t compare today’s team bosses with those of the past,” he said.

“The teams have become far too big for Ron Dennis to control everything. If you want to do it right, you have to have a team principal and a managing director. Andrea only looks after the team, I look after the rest.

“I have the feeling that I work for the team and not the other way round. My job is to support him. With the financial resources, with the political issues.

“If Andrea was distracted by media work, marketing, contacts with shareholders or sponsors, he wouldn’t be able to do the job he does.

“With him, I knew what I was getting myself into. Our personalities fit well together and we complement each other in our work. The same applies to the other directors. If you want to be successful, you have to have a culture in which people trust each other.”

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