McLaren team principal has explained the "special focus" adopted by the Woking-based squad for the Las Vegas Grand Prix this season, having struggled in the first two editions of the race.
Lando Norris clinched pole position in qualifying under the lights of Sin City, taking advantage of the treacherous conditions to vanquish the constructors' champion's recent demons on The Strip.
However, Stella maintains that a "tight and uncertain" challenge lies in store for the British driver, who is joined on the front row of the grid by Max Verstappen.
The 11-time grand prix winner finished the race in Nevada behind the Dutchman 12 months ago, as the Red Bull driver became a four-time F1 drivers' champion.
That sixth-place finish for Norris is the best McLaren has achieved since F1 returned to Las Vegas in 2023, but this year, he heads into the 50-lap contest well poised to further strengthen his hand in his pursuit of a first F1 drivers' championship with team-mate Oscar Piastri only starting fifth.
He leads the Australian by 24 points with only three rounds to run, but it was his final stint during the 2024 race, on hard tyres, that has laid the groundwork for Norris to capitalise on.
"We improved the car in several areas that we learned from last year, when it comes to the aerodynamic configuration, somehow utilisation of the tyres, and also from a balanced point of view," Stella told media, including RacingNews365.
"I would say the balance of the car is the main learning from the last stint last year," the Italian added, in reference to Norris' exploits.
"But there's been special focus on making sure that the car is competitive in Vegas, based on what we've learned in '23 and '24."
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'Tight and uncertain' test ahead
Nonetheless, Stella was keen to point out the scale of the test facing Norris — and Piastri — in the race through the entertainment capital of the world.
The 54-year-old also shared his scepticism that McLaren would have been capable of taking pole position without the benefit of the adverse weather.
"Difficult to say if we could have scored the pole position in dry [conditions]," he said. "As I said before, we definitely put quite a lot of effort into working on the areas of weakness that we had identified last year to be competitive in Vegas.
"Some of the things we have seen in the practice sessions were encouraging, but I think in the dry, we would not have had the margin that we had in wet. So I think it would have been much more uncertain and much tighter.
"Definitely, I would have been surprised if somebody had told me: 'It's going to be a pole position in Vegas.' I would have said: 'I'm not sure, it's going to be very tight.'
"I think what we don't see this year is... Like, last year, there was a dominance of one team.
"This year, it looks like all the teams kind of know what to do in Vegas, which makes a race... I hope you will not be so uncertain, but I expect the race to actually be quite tight and uncertain."
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