Following the winter departure of team boss Andreas Seidl, who moved to become CEO at Sauber, Stella and McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown completed a major review of the heritage outfit’s leadership structure.
This led to the immediate exit of executive technical director James Key, who has since been signed by Seidl. He was replaced by a three-pronged system to cover aerodynamics, car concept and performance plus engineering and design.
McLaren promoted Peter Prodromou to lead the aerodynamic division while David Sanchez was poached from Ferrari to head up car concept and performance.
Initially, Neil Houldey was elevated to oversee engineering and design before Red Bull chief engineering officer Rob Marshall became available. McLaren moved quickly to appoint Marshall, while Houldey has now moved to a deputy position.
The complex structure more closely resembles Red Bull, reckons Stella. The defending champion’s technical team is led by Adrian Newey, with Pierre Wache, Paul Monaghan and Ben Waterhouse.
Stella says McLaren was not lacking experience or clear leadership with its former setup but has now sought to bring more competing ideas to the table to help the climb the standings.
Asked by Autosport to explain the revamp, the Italian said: “I think this configuration is strong, because it's not like about who makes decisions, but it's much more about how can we generate competitive ideas to bring to the table.
Source: Autosport