The surprising similarities between drought-ending chasers McLaren and Ferrari

McLaren workforce principal Andrea Stella believes the Ferrari-like tradition on the workforce helps it compete for the constructors’ title heading into the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Having not gained the workforce championship since 1998, McLaren can finish that barren run on the Yas Marina Circuit, the place it heads into the grand prix weekend 21 factors away from Ferrari.

Lando Norris is second within the drivers’ championship, having pushed four-time winner Max Verstappen additional than anybody else this yr, however the workforce has had its eye on the constructors’ prize all season.

Taking the crown would seal a exceptional turnaround for McLaren, which completed a distant fourth within the standings final yr.

Stella, a former efficiency and race engineer at Ferrari, was requested what the principle variations are between the 2 squads – however the Italian as an alternative centered on what he noticed because the shared cultures.

“Attention-grabbing query, as a result of after we speak about tradition, there’s many angles, many points you could take into account to outline the tradition,” he stated in Abu Dhabi on Friday.

“However really, earlier than we discuss concerning the variations, I might say that there are some fundamentals which can be very, very comparable. The dedication of the individuals, the eagerness.

“Generally I hear like the eagerness within the Italian workforce and extra of a chilly strategy [here], which I can positively say that is not true.”

Stella beforehand labored alongside world champions Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari and was a part of Scuderia when it final gained the constructors’ title in 2008.

“The motivation, the eagerness that we have now within the McLaren workforce is unquestionably comparable with what I used to be used to after I was at Ferrari,” he stated.

“Striving for excellence is one thing that’s in widespread. It is a simple dialog to have with individuals saying we have to increase the bar and everybody understands and everybody tries their greatest. So really for me, transferring from one workforce to the opposite, I did not must assume differently.

“I feel what I’ve positively discovered that was very highly effective at McLaren was that after we had settlement, after we recognized widespread options, after we put in place some type of, let’s name it, guidelines, behaviours, or what altogether, ideas, that may kind the tradition, then I feel the workforce members, the individuals had been fairly constant in sticking with what was agreed.

“And on this sense, this made progress simple. It was attainable to progress based mostly on plans. It was attainable to progress based mostly on what we agreed all collectively that must be the journey of the workforce.”