Emerson Fittipaldi shares which ‘fantastic’ F1 team boss has really impressed this year

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There have been impressive turnarounds from most of the Formula 1 teams chasing Red Bull this season after their advantage appeared to be slashed before the summer break.

The team that has enjoyed the biggest comeback has been McLaren, having started the 2023 season off as one of their worst in recent history.

The MCL60 suffered a difficult first few months on track amid a change in leadership and technical staff in the offseason, but after making key updates to their car last season they started to show promise.

This year McLaren has delivered on that with two victories and regular podium slots, while the team is also going into each race weekend with a genuine chance at winning the race.

McLaren plans to keep bringing upgrades in the latter stages of the season having focused most of their resources at their factory on getting them in the pipeline.

Speaking on the MotorMouth podcast, former McLaren driver and two-time F1 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi believes one person within the team has been key to that success and reviving their title hopes.

Emerson Fittipaldi makes McLaren prediction

The team is now in the hunt for a Constructors’ Championship after reducing the gap to just 42 points between them and Red Bull.

Fittipaldi believes much of their recent success can be attributed to Italian engineer Andrea Stella, who after taking up the team principal role in February, has presided over a competitive resurgence from the team.

“Andrea [Stella] is doing fantastic work, the level the team is now is so competitive. You walk through, all the engineers are enthusiastic, I can feel the vibe in the air for McLaren,” said Fittipaldi.

“I think they have the potential to be World Champions from next year for sure, even this year they can challenge Max.”

Andrea Stella key to McLaren revival

After Andreas Seidl left the team at the end of 2022 to become the chief executive officer of Sauber, Stella took over as the team principal of McLaren.

Stella previously held jobs at Ferrari where he was key to their success during Micheal Schumacher’s dominance between 2002 and 2004, and later Kimi Raikkonen’s title success in 2007.

Since joining McLaren, Stella has been responsible for streamlining their technical team and bringing in engineering talent from Red Bull and Ferrari.

Former F1 driver Luciano Burti recently explained why Stella is one of the best engineers in the championship, having worked with him during his years as a test driver at Ferrari.