Stella: "No blame culture at McLaren" ahead of the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix
- Kavi Khandelwal
- 51 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Written by Kavi Khandelwal
Twenty-two races down, two to go. McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella sat down for an interview in Qatar as the season approached its thrilling end.
He discussed the implications of the team's disqualifications at the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix and the strategy for the final, decisive races of the season.
Stella praised the team's reaction to the setback, pivoting from the disappointment, and emphasised that their culture remained focused on the forward momentum.
"Walking around the factory this week, I was particularly impressed by how deep and strong the cultural foundation of the team was. The reaction has been entirely focused on picking up the learning, dismissing any negativity, and making sure we come out stronger from this kind of situation. I was very glad to see how the team has become a mature group of united and forward-thinking racers."
He offered a firm distinction about the environment he fosters:
"Episodes like this make you grow. They are painful, there is no point in hiding it, but pain is also part of our sport. There is no blame culture at McLaren, but rather a culture of constant progress and growth."
The unforeseen porpoising
Addressing the specific technical infringement that saw both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri disqualified in Vegas, Stella clarified that the excessive rear skid wear was due to a technical anomaly, not an aggressive setup choice.
"The specific cause that led to the situation was the unexpected occurrence of extensive porpoising, inducing large vertical oscillations of the car," Stella explained.
He noted that the team had added a safety margin to the ride height prediction, but this was negated by the unforeseen conditions: "The safety margin was negated by the unexpected onset of the large vertical oscillations, which caused the car to touch the ground."
Stella also confirmed the difficulty of monitoring the issue during the race, particularly on Oscar's car, and that driver actions were largely ineffective: "Unfortunately, we also saw that, because of the car operating window and the circuit characteristics, most of these actions were not effective enough in reducing porpoising."
Clarity on penalties and title fight
Stella highlighted the non-proportional nature of the technical rules that led to the penalty, even though the wear was minor (0.12 mm and 0.26 mm for the two cars).
He noted: "The FIA itself has admitted that this lack of proportionality should be addressed in the future to ensure that minor and accidental technical infringements... do not lead to disproportionate consequences."
Looking ahead to Qatar, Stella is confident the setup issues are specific to Las Vegas.
"The conditions we experienced last weekend... are very specific to the operating window of the car in Vegas and the circuit characteristics. We have a well-established and consolidated way of setting up the car," he affirmed, adding that the incident was due to an "anomaly in the behaviour of the car," rather than an excessive chase of performance.
Finally, with Max Verstappen just 24 points behind Lando Norris, Stella confirmed driver management would remain unchanged for the climax of the championship.
"We have always said that as long as the maths does not say otherwise, we would leave it up to the two drivers to fight for their chance at the final victory, and that is how it will be in Qatar," he concluded. "Now we are going to fight for the double World Championship with confidence and awareness of our strength.”
