McLaren boss Andrea Stella said the team must avoid “poison biscuits” to maintain its winning culture after sealing the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Lando Norris’ victory at the Yas Marina Circuit ensured that second and third-placed Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc couldn’t elevate Ferrari beyond McLaren in the Constructors’ standings.
A 14-point margin in McLaren’s brought the team its first Constructors’ title in 26 years, completing a remarkable turnaround from the beginning of 2023 when it was at the back of the grid.
Stella explained to select media including Motorsport Week on Sunday about a phrase coined at McLaren called the “poison biscuit.”
When asked about the origins of the phrase, Stella said “I know the poison biscuit has leaked outside McLaren, I haven’t learned that the journalists are too smart, I’m still naive.
“Refusing the poison biscuits is one of the fundamental elements of checking and validating that the culture that we have created is not only words but exists in real life.
“We will always have poison biscuits dropped in our camp. We will always have poison biscuits dropped and with an attempt to create division, to break the cohesion that we have in the team.
“But we talk every day that we are not going to pick the poison biscuits.
“It would be very naive, it would be very arrogant to think that because we have achieved something now, we are perfect, now we can relax, now we can think that everything is due just because we are world champions.
“There’s nothing new; I think the best philosophy is that you start like if you had lost and that’s what we’re going to do in preparation for next season.”
1000 people worked towards winning F1 title for McLaren
Stella is clear with his focus on team spirit within McLaren and he clarified that when discussing how the team developed into a title-winning outfit.
McLaren has gone from the back fo the grid in 2015 and had to reinvent itself throughout 10 seasons to become Constructors’ Champions in 2024.
Stella mentioned how the 1000-strong workforce at the Woking-based outfit have developed in a way to bring McLaren to its success today.
“Unlocking the people is something that I’ve said several times,” Stella explained.
“I’m not sure if it’s something that… who listens can actually appreciate what it means, if you are not part of seeing such a rapid progress of 1000 people.
“But that’s what has happened because you cannot achieve these standards, this performance, these operations, this reliability without every one of the 1000 people operating at very high level.
“That’s what we have gone through in these 10 years at McLaren but hopefully this is not an end point, this is just a starting point for more to come in the future.”
READ MORE – Andrea Stella: McLaren has gone full circle from 2015 backmarker to F1 title
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