Fernando Alonso feels “Abu Dhabi gave back to Andrea Stella what it took from us in 2010”. Fernando Alonso pays tribute to Andrea Stella.

The 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the season finale, represents a true turning point in Fernando Alonso’s career. Who could forget the frustrating—but entirely fair—defense by Vitaly Petrov that ultimately handed Sebastian Vettel the first of his four world titles?

Since then, Fernando Alonso has gained a wealth of experience, including victories in the WEC (two 24 Hours of Le Mans and a drivers’ title), participation in the Dakar Rally, the Indianapolis 500, and a return to Formula 1 with Renault and later Aston Martin.

For Alonso, Abu Dhabi 2010 has always been a dark chapter in his career due to the title that slipped away. However, for someone else, it became an opportunity for redemption. That person is Andrea Stella, Fernando Alonso’s race engineer at the time and now McLaren’s team principal, who just led the team to a Constructors’ Championship victory at Yas Marina.

“Fantastic. I’m a good friend of Zak and a great friend of Andrea. In some way, I brought Andrea to McLaren when I joined the team. Before the race, I told him: ‘What Abu Dhabi took from us in 2010, I hope it gives back to you today.’ And that’s exactly what happened, so I’m really happy for him. He deserves it. He’s a great guy, and McLaren is now a role model for many teams,” said Alonso at the end of the 2024 season.

“Zak is truly a close friend of mine. We’ll spend a few days together in the coming weeks, having fun with some track sessions.”

“The biggest change McLaren made came last year. They hadn’t managed much in 2019, 2020, 2021, or 2022. They didn’t achieve much in 2023 either until the Austrian Grand Prix, where they finally got on the podium.”

Turning his attention to Aston Martin, the Spaniard highlighted what the Silverstone-based team must do to achieve success: follow McLaren’s example from mid-2023 onward.

“In Austria, they introduced a package that gained them six or seven-tenths, and that was the start of a series of upgrades that turned the McLarens into the fastest cars on the grid.”

“At Aston Martin, we need to work on developing our own ‘Austria package.’ We have to aim for that kind of breakthrough and make a similar leap forward.”