McLaren rules out Adrian Newey as Zak Brown opens up on Andrea Stella's contribution to the team's rejuvenated form
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has ruled out the possibility of former Red Bull star designer Adrian Newey joining the Woking-based outfit as the rumours regarding the Briton's future continue to swirl.
Adrian Newey announced his shock departure from the reigning world champion team Red Bull at the start of May. The star engineer, who has designed championship-winning cars for three outfits, continued to attend races, but he ended his active involvement in the team after finalizing and launching Red Bull's hypercar, the RB17 at Goodwood.
Newey is yet to confirm his plans as rumours continue to swirl regarding his next Formula 1 stop. Although he is heavily linked to Aston Martin, McLaren has also been mentioned as a possible destination for the 65-year-old designer.
Speaking in an interview with BBS Sport, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown addressed speculation that Newey could return to the Woking-based squad and made it clear that such a reunion was not in the works.
"We're not going to sign Adrian. I'm very happy with the team. Adrian is a great friend, huge talent, resume [CV] second to none. But with what we have in place here, I couldn't be happier.
"We can get the job done. I'm happy with the race team we have and we're going to try to win the world championship with the team sitting here today."
McLaren have been one of the standout teams this season, with exceptional drives from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri combining with the team’s development work to send the papaya cars rocketing up the order, challenging for wins and podiums.
Brown has prasied team boss Andrea Stella for McLaren's heavily improved form in the last two years, claiming that the Italian is not only hard-working, but can communicate very well.
"He unlocked the talent that we already had here," Brown says. "We've got approximately 1,000 people here in F1. I changed three. But it was three leaders. So 997 are the same people who gave us the [uncompetitive] car at the beginning of 2023.
"A leader's job is to get the most out of their people and that's what we didn't have previously. We weren't able to let the talent we have in here flourish.
"Andrea communicates very well. He listens very well. He's very hard-working. He's very technical. He leads by example. All the traits you would want in a great leader. He unlocked the potential this team clearly had sitting there."
Stella joined McLaren in 2015 but was not promoted to team principal for another eight years. Brown revealed that Stella first rejected the promotion to team boss as he did not feel ready for that role.
"Truth be known. I offered it to him the first time around [when Seidl was appointed in January 2019], and he declined it. He felt he wasn't ready. Andrea is someone who knows his capabilities and doesn't overreach.
"The second time around he knew me better, knew the team better, even though he'd been here a while. And still he didn't say yes in the first phone call. It took a couple of days because he's very methodical, very thoughtful."
