Andrea Stella admitted he has been "reluctant" in the past to embrace the public side of leadership in Formula 1 – but knows that will have to change now he has the top job at McLaren.
The Italian was unveiled on Tuesday as the new team principal, following the departure of Andreas Seidl. The German had privately communicated his desire to leave for Sauber at the end of his contract in 2025, but Frederic Vasseur's Ferrari move sped up the process.
And so chief executive Zak Brown decided to promote Stella from his previous role as executive director of racing. In that job he already had some of the responsibilities that many team principals would oversee, but now he is the public face of McLaren's racing management team he will have to become more public.
