Zak Brown is pleased with the promotion of Andrea Stella as McLaren F1 team principal and he doesn’t see a lot of changes in future.
In a surprising move this winter, Andreas Seidl decided to leave McLaren and join Sauber from 2023 onward as its new CEO. As per Brown, this was already to happen as talks started behind the scenes and many believe it is down to Audi’s arrival in F1.
Seidl has been part of the Volkswagen family with Porsche but this time he is likely to work with the sister manufacturer Audi. His departure has been filled by Stella at McLaren, who has been promoted from being executive director to F1 team principal.
Brown insisted that he was his first choice and he always had the idea to promote rather than go outside and he has full faith in his abilities. “I think it is a big team and any team or business for that matter, it is a collection of individuals,” he said to media including FormulaRapida.net.
“Andreas did a tremendous job for us but have no doubt Andrea will pick up from today and will no doubt carry us forward. I am very happy as Andrea mentioned with the racing team and as Andrea mentioned, we could add some resources in certain areas but its what you want when opportunities present themselves and the fact that you are able to go into the organisation and talk up the depth of the racing team.”
Elaborating on that, Brown reckoned that Stella wouldn’t need more people or mega changes in the team and that the American will extend his support on the sporting and commercial side if needed. “I don’t think there will be a tremendous amount of change,” he said, who is looking more that the Italian improves the performance of the team.
“There may be areas where Andrea would like my support in the sporting side, commercial side and the media etc, and we will find good ways of working together and I reckon we have gone from 850 people to 849 people and there is a tremendous amount of talent in the team and there are tremendous opportunities for everyone to step up and I think I am very comfortable that between Andrea and myself and we have got it well covered in any modifications that he may make.
“I think from our standpoint I think what I am looking at from Andrea is looking at the performance of the F1 team, some teams are structured differently, some are structured similarly. It is a team effort and I will continue to do what I think is best, which is on the commercial side, bringing in the best people and giving them the resources and direction to do their job to the best of their ability and ultimately Andrea’s responsibility is the performance of the F1 team,” summed up Brown.
Here’s Zak Brown on departure of Andreas Seidl
Here’s McLaren Shadow winning F1 ESports series
Here’s Lando Norris on Andreas Seidl’s departure
Here’s news of Andreas Seidl joining Sauber, Andrea Stella promotion
Here’s Andreas Seidl not blaming Daniel Ricciardo for P4 loss
