Fernando Alonso says McLaren’s Formulation 1 title in Abu Dhabi has repaid group boss Andrea Stella for Ferrari’s title loss in 2010.
Stella was Alonso’s race engineer at Ferrari when the Spaniard went into the 2010 season finale with an eight-point lead on Crimson Bull’s Mark Webber and an 15-point lead on Webber’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel led the race from pole whereas an early pitstop for Alonso, in response to Webber, pitted the two-time world champion into visitors. Famously, Alonso was unable to go the Renault of Vitaly Petrov, one of many two vehicles he wanted to get by to restrict the injury to eventual race winner Vettel.
Alonso and Stella would have yet one more outdoors shot at a world championship with Ferrari in 2012 till they each joined McLaren for 2015 throughout a lean, transitional interval.
Talking after McLaren lastly achieved world championship profitable success for the primary time in 26 years, Alonso mentioned he was delighted for his former race engineer and remarked that the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was payback for his and Stella’s traumatising loss in 2010.
“Yeah, implausible,” Alonso mentioned. “I am a superb pal of Zak [Brown, McLaren CEO] and an excellent pal of Andrea.
“In a means, I introduced him to McLaren after I joined McLaren, so I instructed him earlier than the race: ‘What Abu Dhabi took from our palms in 2010, hopefully immediately provides one thing again to you.’
“And it did, so I am completely satisfied for him. He deserves it, he is a really intelligent man and McLaren is an instance for a lot of groups now.
Andrea Stella, Group Principal, McLaren F1 Group, the McLaren group have fun after securing the Constructors title
Picture by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Photographs
“Zak is an excellent pal of mine, we are going to spend some days collectively within the subsequent few weeks and we’ll have some enjoyable with observe days.”
McLaren’s spectacular turnaround over the previous 18 months, from narrowly avoiding a double Q1 elimination on the opening spherical of 2023 to profitable the championship as a Mercedes buyer group in 2024, is serving for example for the remainder of the grid. That’s very true for fellow Mercedes buyer Aston Martin, one other group in transition because it bolsters its engineering ranks at a model new Silverstone headquarters.
Aston has had to return to the drafting board after failing so as to add important efficiency to its vehicles since its flying begin to the 2023 season, which netted Alonso six podiums within the first eight races and nearly netted a win in Monaco.
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This yr Aston remained a lonely fifth within the championship, however with simply 94 factors scored in comparison with 280 final season.
“The largest change was final yr,” Alonso mentioned. “McLaren didn’t do a lot in 2019, 2020, 2021 or 2022. They didn’t do a lot in 2023 till Austria after they have been on the rostrum.
“In Austria they launched a bundle that they gained six or seven tenths with, and that was the start of a collection of packages that made their automotive the quickest, finally.
“That Austria bundle, if we need to name it that, is one thing we have to work on.”
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Filip Cleeren
Formulation 1
Fernando Alonso
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