Andrea Stella admits “it would have been nice to win a Formula 1 title with Ferrari”. Not winning a title with Ferrari is the biggest regret of current McLaren team boss Andrea Stella.

Looking at the Formula 1 world champions’ hall of fame, Fernando Alonso’s name is associated with the 2005 and 2006 seasons when he triumphed with Renault, ending Michael Schumacher’s golden era at Ferrari. Yet, analyzing the Spanish driver’s career, the current Aston Martin driver could have matched the number of successes of Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna, or Nelson Piquet, prominent figures in this sport with three titles each.

Near Miss Championships

Fernando Alonso has repeatedly missed the goal of the triple crown, whether due to unfortunate incidents, wrong choices, or internal tensions with teammates, like the one with the rookie Lewis Hamilton at McLaren in 2007, which led both to be just one point behind the winner Kimi Raikkonen. In the Spaniard’s career, however, there were also two championships lost by a very small margin, both at the wheel of Ferrari. In 2010, in his first year in Maranello, he failed to surpass Sebastian Vettel by 4 points, and by only 3 in 2012, still in contention with the German driver of Red Bull.

Andrea Stella’s Regret

These, probably, represent the biggest regrets for both the Oviedo-born driver and the current McLaren Team Principal, Andrea Stella, who was Fernando Alonso’s race engineer at the time. “If I could go back in time and change something, I would wish for a title with Ferrari,” he admitted on the Beyond the Grid podcast. “In 2010, our first year at Ferrari, we came close to the title, but, in the end, we lacked continuity. This is a substantial difference from the Schumacher era, which achieved great success after a few attempts.” – he pointed out.

Considerations on Fernando Alonso

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In his five years in Maranello, Fernando Alonso still managed to showcase all his qualities, acknowledged even today by Andrea Stella. “Fernando is the most complete driver of all. Basically, he has no weak points, and that makes him unique. Perhaps he’s not the best in many aspects, but he is very strong in all. No other driver can offer this in this form.” – the Italian engineer concluded.