Brown in charge at McLaren
LONDON: McLaren announced a management restructure yesterday, with Zak Brown given overall responsibility for the Formula One team and racing director Eric Boullier reporting to him.
The McLaren Group said it had simplified the corporate structure into three divisions: Applied Technologies, Automotive and Racing.
Jonathan Neale becomes chief operating officer of the group, with Mike Flewitt continuing as chief executive of luxury sportscar maker McLaren Automotive.
Brown, a marketing expert, joined McLaren in 2016 as executive director with a focus on raising new sponsorship after the departure of former boss Ron Dennis.
The American has, however, been effectively acting as principal of the team and now takes on the title of chief executive officer.
‘‘The work of the past year at a corporate level has been focused on structuring and positioning McLaren for growth,’’ executive chairman Sheikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa said in a statement.
‘‘These latest developments are a natural consequence of that work and are designed to bring greater simplicity and clarity to the structure and leadership of the group.’’
The Bahraini and McLaren’s Saudiborn coowner, Mansour Ojjeh, continue to form the executive committee.
McLaren is the sport’s secondmost successful team after Ferrari in terms of race wins (182), but the former champion has been an alsoran since its last grand prix victory in 2012.
In Monday’s Bahrain Grand Prix the Renaultpowered team reached a milestone of 100 races without a win and it faces a tough road back after three dismal years with underperforming Honda engines.
To add to the discomfort, both the Hondapowered Toro Rosso cars of Pierre Gasly and New Zealander Brendon Hartley out qualified Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne in Manama.
Frenchman Gasly then finished fourth, a better result than anything McLaren achieved in the past three seasons with its Japanese partner.
Despite that, McLaren — ninth of 10 teams last year — is third in the championship thanks to both Red Bull drivers failing to finish.
Double world champion Alonso finished fifth and seventh in Australia and Bahrain respectively and is fourth in the standings.
The results have flattered the team, however, with the McLaren considered to be about a second a lap down on the Red Bull, which has the same Renault engine.
That has focused attention on the chassis, and raised questions about whether the Honda engine was blamed disproportionately last year.
‘‘We know that we have the potential, we know that the car has some good things, some bad things. We need to make sure we improve the bad things as soon as possible,’’ Alonso said after the grand prix. — Reuters