### **How McLaren Fosters a Winning Culture Through Open Competition and Mutual Respect**
McLaren’s Formula 1 team has built its current success on a foundational and deliberate principle: the only inherent point of disunity is the drivers’ championship. Team Principal Andrea Stella emphasizes that this reality must be acknowledged head-on, not ignored. The team’s operational philosophy is built on brutal honesty and straight talking with drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. The goal is to ensure any mistakes stem from strategic misjudgments, never from a failure of transparent communication. Stella argues that unaddressed issues fester and resurface destructively during high-pressure moments, making them far harder to manage. His key achievement has been convincing both drivers that trusting the team to operate fairly is ultimately in their own best interests, as it creates a stable, high-performance environment where they can thrive. This trust is bolstered by the fact that both Norris and Piastri have grown their entire F1 careers at McLaren, aligning their personal development with the team’s ambitious trajectory.
This culture of open competition is reflected in the drivers’ own statements. Both consistently highlight two core beliefs: first, that a fierce but fair intra-team battle constantly raises the performance bar, giving McLaren a collective edge over rivals who may lack such a dynamic; and second, that they view this as the beginning of a long-term title campaign with the team, not a one-off opportunity. Norris, who secured third in the 2023 championship, credits their partnership’s success to having „two drivers who respect the team and are not selfish.” He points to F1 history littered with examples of team dynamics spiraling negatively and states that avoiding that downward spiral is the absolute priority. He notes that while drivers naturally focus on maximizing their own performance, he and Piastri maintain a collaborative and enjoyable working relationship, sharing laughs in debriefs and enjoying time together off-track.
The relationship between Norris and Piastri is characterized by professional respect and friendliness rather than an intense personal friendship. They are comfortable together at team events but maintain their own private lives. Crucially, both drivers are firmly united in their preference for racing on equal terms, even if it risks losing a championship to an external rival—as nearly happened with Max Verstappen in 2023—over being in a team with a clear number-one driver. Piastri articulates this shared conviction, stating that both want to win because they have been the best driver and the best team, which includes beating their teammate. He believes this meritocratic approach gives them both the best shot at their personal goal of a drivers’ title while simultaneously securing the team’s primary objective: the constructors’ championship. This alignment of individual ambition with collective success forms the bedrock of McLaren’s current competitive ethos.
Ez a cikk a Neural News AI (V1) verziójával készült.
Forrás: https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/articles/c4g9791d0nko.