The race engineer who works for Fernando Alonso from the pit wall actually joined his driver on the European GP podium, to collect the Constructor’s trophy and the quickest way to explain Andrea Stella’s curriculum vitae is that, in the past, when they drove for the Prancing Horse, he also worked for the second and third placed men on that podium, Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher.
It seemed logical to quiz Stella for a quick appraisal of ‘his’ three drivers. “Michael is a great racer, very strong in the race and very strong in the way he controlled the rear end of the car. He was very talented in this respect, even if he could be a bit too aggressive sometimes in the races.”
“Kimi was very, very quick when the car was operating in a certain window. In this situation he can be the fastest, although when the car was not in that window, he had to work harder to find the optimal point with the car. And with Fernando, his strong point is that, basically, he does not have weak points! He is strong as a driver in the car in all conditions, from dry to extreme wet and outside the car, he is very consistent and strong mentally, which is very important in modern Formula One,” said Stella.