Former Ferrari race engineer and current McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has long observed qualities in Oscar Piastri reminiscent of two of Formula 1’s greatest drivers, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, drawing on decades of experience with elite racers.
Stella’s Formula 1 career began at Ferrari, where he played a key role in Michael Schumacher’s five drivers’ championship victories with the Scuderia between 2000 and 2004. Starting in Ferrari’s test team, Stella quickly advanced to become Schumacher’s performance engineer from 2002 to 2006, gaining invaluable insight into the workings of a championship-winning driver. Over the years, he also served as race engineer to Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso at Ferrari before making the move to McLaren in 2015. Since then, the 54-year-old Italian has held multiple senior roles at the Woking-based team, including head of race operations, performance director, racing director, and ultimately team principal from December 2022.
Stella’s promotion to the top of McLaren coincided with Oscar Piastri’s Formula 1 debut for the papaya squad in 2023. Piastri quickly demonstrated traits that reminded Stella of Schumacher and Alonso, even within the first 15 rounds of his rookie season. The Australian’s combination of raw speed, adaptability, and strategic thinking on track mirrored elements that the Italian had seen in the seven-time and two-time world champions he had worked with.
Fast forward to 2025, and Piastri is in strong contention for the drivers’ championship, potentially becoming only the third Australian to secure the title under Stella’s guidance. The 24-year-old currently leads the standings after 14 rounds with 284 points, having already claimed six Grand Prix victories and 12 podium finishes this season. McLaren have maintained a policy of avoiding team orders for Piastri and teammate Lando Norris, who is just nine points behind at the summer break, allowing both drivers to race freely while Stella provides mentorship.
A key aspect of Stella’s guidance involves highlighting to Piastri the factors that made Schumacher and Alonso so successful, as well as the areas where they had vulnerabilities. Piastri has expressed that he finds it valuable to learn that even the sport’s most celebrated drivers had weaknesses. Michael Schumacher achieved 38 of his 91 career Grand Prix victories with Stella as his performance engineer between 2002 and 2006 alongside the Maranello team, while Alonso secured 11 of his 32 career wins during their time together. Piastri has acknowledged that understanding both the strengths and limitations of these legends gives him perspective on his own development, emphasizing that no driver is perfect but learning from the best is always beneficial.
Speaking to the official F1 website, Oscar Piastri explained that learning about the strengths and weaknesses of drivers like Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, through Stella’s insights, is highly instructive. He noted that even world champions faced challenges, and understanding these nuances is a powerful lesson. Oscar Piastri also reflected on the privilege of being compared to such accomplished drivers, seeing it as both motivating and a source of perspective on his own growth in Formula 1.
Andrea Stella, meanwhile, had quickly identified traits reminiscent of Schumacher and Alonso in Piastri when the Australian joined McLaren in 2023, observing similarities even from Piastri’s dominant junior career in F3 and F2, where he won back-to-back titles as a rookie in 2020 and 2021. Ahead of the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix, Stella highlighted Piastri’s qualities in a conversation with Autosport, drawing parallels to the mindset and attitude that made Schumacher so effective and noting Piastri’s continuous drive for improvement as reminiscent of Alonso.
With Oscar Piastri now vying to become only the third Australian F1 world champion, following in the footsteps of Jack Brabham (1959, 1960, 1966) and Alan Jones (1980), Stella’s mentorship remains pivotal. While Alonso did not clinch a drivers’ title during his time working with Andrea Stella at Ferrari—finishing runner-up in 2010, 2012, and 2013—the lessons learned under his guidance have provided Piastri with a blueprint for achieving sustained success at the highest level of the sport.
This approach reinforces McLaren’s commitment to developing young talent while capitalizing on Stella’s vast experience with some of the greatest drivers in F1 history, offering Piastri the tools and insights to potentially translate his early promise into a landmark championship victory.
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