Age | 50 |
Occupation | Executive Director, Racing, McLaren Racing |
Nationality | Italian |
Position Last Year | New |
Andrea Stella is an Italian engineer, currently employed by McLaren Racing Limited as Racing Director. He was previously a Performance Engineer and Race Engineer at Scuderia Ferrari.
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Andrea has two decades of Formula 1 experience, which includes a 14-year spell at Ferrari that began in 2000. His first role was Performance Engineer in its test team, prior to being Performance Engineer for Michael Schumacher (2002-2006) and then Kimi Räikkönen (2006-2008).
In 2009, he was Race Engineer for the latter, before performing the same role for Fernando Alonso between 2010 and 2014. He graduated from the Sapienza University of Rome with a degree in Aerospace Engineering.
Andrea Stella joined McLaren in 2015 as Head of Race Operations, moving to Performance Director in 2018 and Racing Director in 2019. In the latter role, he forms a triumvirate with James Key as Technical Director and Piers Thynne as Production Director, all under Team Principal Andreas Seidl.
Andrea Stella commented on his first Formula 1 experience:
I was on a trip with my father. It was 1990, and we were driving through a small Italian town when we saw a sign that read ‘Ferrari Formula 1’. We decided to follow the signs, as both my father and I were interested in F1. We found a Ferrari 640 – the so-called ‘La Papera’ (‘the duck’), due to its flat nose – inside a small marquee.
I had never seen a real Formula 1 car before and I was impressed by how wide the tyres were and how beautiful that car looked. I took a Polaroid picture sat on the front wheel. It’s a photo I still have. When I remember the episode today, I can still clearly recall the emotion of the day.
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