McLaren boss outlines key to 2024 success

Stella took charge of the papaya operation before the 2023 season and quickly restructured its technical department.

That has resulted in the hiring of key staff, including Rob Marshall from Red Bull Racing and David Sanchez from Ferrari.

Complementing their arrival in January is a brand-new wind tunnel and simulator – neither of which played a part in McLaren's form reversal in 2023 but are a strong step in terms of its technical capabilities.

“I don't think it will be a precipice it will be more of a gradient,” Stella told Speedcafe when asked if the team was on the precipice of great things.

“The ingredients are coming together.

“We need to work very carefully, with attention on how we make the recipe work.

“Sometimes, you may have good ingredients, but if you are not a good chef, these ingredients don't necessarily produce the result you expect.

“This is one of the main areas for me and Zak [Brown, McLaren Racing CEO] to work on making sure that these ingredients find the right way to combine all together.

“So far, we are happy with that.”

Stella's impact since taking charge of McLaren has been profound.

Though it slipped back in the opening rounds of 2023, it rallied to be arguably the second-best team behind the all-conquering Red Bull Racing squad.

During his first year in charge, Stella did much to foster optimism and loyalty, while his openness and honesty have built morale within the team.

That led to the turnaround in performance during last season – an accomplishment achieved by a largely unchanged design team.

With that remaining in place, but with the addition of fresh ideas from high-profile signings in key positions, there is cause for increased optimism.

“Definitely, for instance, including Rob Marshall and David Sanchez, while we have a nice structure in place, it will require adaptation of working ways, it will require integration of their ideas, the way they look at developing a car, so there's certainly quite a lot of work ahead of us.

“But we are very encouraged by the gradient.

“We keep seeing, even in this period of the winter, we are encouraged by the development of the car that we see in the background – like we saw before Austria or before Singapore.

“We need to keep momentum behind this gradient, but we also need to keep good work; we need also to keep our good culture to make sure that everyone keeps sticking together, collaborating in the way that we have been able to do in 2023.”

McLaren has already revealed the livery it will carry into the 2024 season, with the MCL38 due to be launched on February 14.

Three days of pre-season testing follow in Bahrain, from February 21-23 ahead of the opening round on February 29-March 2.