McLaren boss Andrea Stella has revealed how it has avoided hurdles in the development of its MCL39 in areas where its Formula 1 rivals have struggled.
The Woking-based squad has excelled across 2025, taking victory in all but three of the 14 Grands Prix contested this year, completing a whopping seven 1-2 finishes.
On every occasion the team has brought any form of update to the MCL39 this year, the car has continued to compete at a significantly high level.
Such is its strength, it was still unaffected by the FIA’s technical directive on flexi-wings, partly instigated by its – and its MCL38 predecessor – innovative use of them.
When asked if he could explain how the team has managed to continuously provide a drivable car over the last couple of seasons, Stella reiterated his previous reasoning on the “fundamentals.”
“This trend that we have been able to establish, whereby developments – being them from a mechanical point of view, but above all aerodynamic – have been successful, is the result of many factors,” the Italian told media including Motorsport Week over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.
“There’s not much in Formula 1 [a] fundamental for success that is a magic bullet. It’s really the result of working on the fundamentals.
“The fundamentals don’t only involve the capacity to generate ideas, to create the next geometry for a floor or a front wing, but they also involve understanding the methodologies you use for this development and understanding when these methodologies will be not only effective in being innovative but also in giving you the confidence that what you have achieved in development in the wind tunnel or CFD will actually transfer into something that works trackside.”
‘Generating the knowhow’ key to McLaren success
Mercedes’ George Russell has recently spoke out on the consistency McLaren has enjoyed, saying they had seemingly found a “perfect path” to its current successes.
Stella places this onto making the most of the “knowhow” the team has and translating it into the on-track performance its basking in currently.
“This is part of generating the knowhow as a team, which in itself is a very simple statement—“let’s generate the knowhow to have the best correlation” – but in reality, is possibly one of the most complicated battlegrounds for any Formula 1 team,” he said.
“We have invested a lot from this point of view. I have to praise the quality of the people because even if we talk methodologies, they are always led by people.
“I have been very lucky that I could lean on very competent leaders and a very talented team.”
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