Stella compares McLaren drivers to Alonso and Schumacher: 'Mental gift'

Andrea Stella has worked with many great drivers during his years in Formula 1, including Micheal Schumacher and Fernando Alonso at Ferrari. The current McLaren team principal has revealed what he thinks links all the great drivers of Formula 1 together.

Speaking on the Pirelli 'Box, Box, Box' podcast, Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal, was asked by host Tom Clarkson what he thinks links all the great drivers, including his current driver pairing. The Italian began by saying "There are at least two elements. One is the talent. They can do the things they do. We can't, but they can do that. This is the talent, this is the development of the ability to drive so fast and in driving so precisely."

Stella spent almost 15 years at Ferrari, beginning his career with the Scuderia in 2000 as a performance engineer for the test team before becoming Micheal Schumacher's performance engineer from 2002-2006. In 2015, he moved to McLaren as head of race operations, working his way up to becoming team principal in 2023.

"The other one all of them have," Stella continued; "Is they have a pretty high level of intelligence. The brain processing is particularly extraordinary, I would say. They are individuals that are very capable and they would be capable in other sectors in terms of mental capabilities. So it's the talent and the mental gift that they have."

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