Before leaving the track last night, we had our usual post-qualifying media session with both McLaren drivers and its team principal, Andrea Stella, who was speaking for the first time since the immediate aftermath of last Sunday’s race.
Having had time to process all that happened with team orders in the closing stages of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Stella acknowledged that it could have done more to prepare for such a situation — but vowed to learn from it.
“One point that we definitely take on board is that we should have prepared the situation better before the race so that you never find yourself preparing the flight plan as you fly,” Stella said.
“I think that’s a golden rule in any kind of challenging situation, and this is the responsibility to the team. I think we entered the race having planned many, many things, but this one actually was left undiscussed. So this is definitely something we take on board as a team.”
The team orders situation naturally attracted a lot of eyeballs and fierce debate over whether or not McLaren did the right thing, but Stella wanted to look at it as only benefitting the team in the long run as it adjusts to life at the front in F1.
“It’s very important that we keep building, building, building, and building,” Stella said. “Sometimes, when you have a tree falling, even if it’s very loud, actually what’s important is to think about the forest growing, which is silent, and sometimes this tree falling gives you so much information to help the forest grow.
“This is my takeaway, which I shared with you pretty openly. But that’s a good reflection of the culture here at McLaren.”
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