McLaren boss Andrea Stella says becoming the first customer team to win an F1 championship in the turbo hybrid era is "not particularly satisfying." In winning the constructors' championship, McLaren became the first team other than Mercedes or Red Bull to win an F1 title since Brawn's double in 2009. The success was also the first in the turbo hybrid era for a customer team, with Mercedes supplying power to the team after re-joining forces in 2021, having split at the end of '14 after then-McLaren boss Ron Dennis insisted that a customer team could not win a championship under the new rules. A power unit development freeze came into force in 2022 with manufacturers not allowed to add performance upgrades to their units, with all customer teams required to be supplied with identical units to the main works team - meaning Mercedes has the same equipment as customers McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams. Reflecting on the achievement, Stella played down the importance of a customer winning a title. "It is not particularly satisfying because I think nowadays, thanks to the regulations and the good work the FIA has done in terms of creating parity as to the way the engine is used between customer and works teams," Stella told media including RacingNews365. "To be honest, we are pretty relaxed that the performance of the customer units is as good as the work teams and we also have a very good relationship with [Mercedes] HPP. "We have a very open dialogue and we appreciate and acknowledge that ultimately it is always going to be Mercedes that will have the final say as to layout for instance, but the dialogue is good with HPP. "We know that they are listening to our opinions, and the relationship is strong and once again, I'd like to say that this is good work that has happened by the FIA in protecting customer teams so that they could have opportunities to win races and championships without having to be a works team."
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