For a change, someone who's not part of the Red Bull camp gets an award, and it's Andrea Stella (not Christian Horner) who gets to be our 2023 Formula 1 Team Boss of the Year.
Nothing against Horner, he's done a fantastic job leading Red Bull to their sixth Constructors' Title, their second in a row, and while it's challenging to make sure no one within the squad relaxes with all the success, the Red Bull boss had an easier time that Stella.
Stella was thrown into the deep end when Andreas Seidl decided to leave McLaren for Sauber early on in 2023, and took over a team that was technically lost, the MCL60 a clear proof of that.
The Italian went about his business silently and under the radar, doing his thing, making changes, one of which was showing tech boss James Key the door, and applying a major restructure of the technical team which will see Red Bull's Rob Marshall join as Technical Director.
It's always the calm ones which you should watch out for, and Stella is a clear example, as the McLaren that finished the season under his watch was a totally different beast to the team he took over at the start of 2023.
A major achievement was the turnaround with the car, the major upgrade in Austria delivering a huge boost in performance which out the Papaya cars second fastest behind the Red Bulls, leapfrogging Ferrari, Mercedes, and Aston Martin.
An astute move by Zak Brown to put Stella in charge of the F1 team
Naturally, Stella did not design the upgrades or manufacture them himself, but the changes he did to the technical team delivered and the results were clear on track.
And for him to do that in such a short time, within the same season, just proves how well he knows his team, and how good he is leading them and empowering them.
He kept himself out of the spotlight, no big talk or blabbering around, always delivering statements or answers to the media that are direct and precise making sure he's not overpromising.
It is always easy for someone who gets promoted to lose control of things and get above oneself, and that is a recipe for disaster, but lucky for McLaren Stella seems to have kept things real.
With Zak Brown - who seems very happy with Stella - being the Sales & Marketing face of McLaren, having a person like Stella running the day-to-day operations is just what the team needs, and they two seem to form a good team.
Now it remains to be seen of Stella can consolidate all the great work he has done in 2023 and build on it for 2024, and if he does that, McLaren should hit the ground running next season.
Hopefully he does...
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