Zak Brown has provided insight into team principal Andrea Stella’s future at McLaren as high-profile signing Gianpiero Lambiase is set to join the F1 team from 2028.
Undoubtedly the biggest piece of F1 news to come out this month is Lambiase’s bombshell move from Red Bull Racing to rival McLaren. The renowned engineer has elected to make the switch after his current contract runs out at the end of the 2027 season.
McLaren’s poaching of the highly regarded race engineer prompted speculation regarding the future of team boss Andrea Stella. Speaking at a recent media session, Brown insisted that there’s enough space for both on the McLaren pitwall, with Lambiase expected to assume the role of Chief Racing Officer.
Stella expected to remain at the helm at McLaren amid Lambiase move
“Yeah, very excited to have GP join us,” Brown said. “I think my job as CEO is to make sure that we have stability and visibility to the future. I think we’ve got a lot of talented individuals that have room for growth.”
Brown explained that Lambiase will support Stella, allowing the McLaren boss to delegate responsibilities more efficiently, rather than arriving as a replacement.
“He’ll be—and I don’t know if Andrea covered off on it—but on the racing operations side, Andrea in reality kind of has three jobs,” he continued.
“I think we sometimes talk about how he has two, he actually has three. He’s the team principal, he runs the racing team, and he also plays a big role in kind of a technical director capacity, obviously. [Peter Prodromou] is the other technical director.
“Andrea is kind of the glue that brings that together. And I think much as the team principal role has evolved over the years, and now you’re seeing most teams with CEO and team principal, now you’re seeing the team principal role evolve.
“And these teams are so big that if you’re going to be great in all those roles…I think Andrea is very capable of doing two jobs—asking him to do three jobs is a tall order. So I think GP will come in and play a great role there.
“Then my job is always to be looking down the road as to who can play and grow within the sport. And so certainly, given GP’s experience and his age, he’s someone I think that can be here for a long time at McLaren and grow.”
