Stella: 'McLaren's 2025 a result of our faith in doing what's never been done'

Speaking to Motorsport.com, the McLaren team principal said the Woking outfit is in a position to commit to high-stakes technical innovations it has “never done before.”

“The team is currently in a position where we can take this sort of engineering risk, and then we will learn along the way,” Stella explained.

Stella explains that McLaren is deliberately taking engineering risks because they trust their ability to develop the right solutions and processes.

This approach allows them not only to generate strong ideas, but also to build and integrate them into the car, even when it takes the team into completely new territory they’ve never explored before.

While some concepts may look promising from an aerodynamic standpoint, the real challenge lies in turning them into working components on the car.

McLaren’s 2025 MCL39 was designed with clever packaging that freed up more room for the aero department to work, resulting in a car that is more aerodynamically efficient and kinder to its tyres, especially in hot conditions.

That philosophy was simply focusing on fundamentals: cooling efficiency, high downforce generation with minimal drag, and strong tyre interaction, Stella says.

The result? A machine capable of winning almost anywhere, racking up a total of 11 out of 14 possible wins.

While Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes each have strengths and notable weaknesses, McLaren’s consistent baseline performance means it is rarely outside the top two or three in any given condition.

That has made it a threat across a variety of circuits, even if Stella admits the team isn’t the outright quickest at high-speed venues like Silverstone or low-speed tracks like Montreal.

Stella has cautioned that McLaren won’t dominate every round after the summer break, with Las Vegas still a question mark given Mercedes’ strength there last year.

But a floor upgrade at Spa and more efficient rear wings in development show the team is not letting its advantage slip.

Meanwhile, a mid-season technical directive on flexiwings had little impact, just as McLaren had predicted, cementing them as the team to beat.