Mclaren revamps leadership again
The beleaguered Mclaren team revamped its trackside leadership ahead of last weekend’s British Grand Prix, with racing director Eric Boullier resigning and 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner Gil de Ferran appointed sporting director.
The 50-year-old de Ferran, who held a similar role at Bar/honda from 2005-08 and ran his own De Ferran Motorsports squad in the American Le Mans Series in 2008-09, had been working as an unofficial Mclaren advisor in recent months, following a stint as Fernando Alonso’s driver coach at last year’s Indy 500.
Boullier’s old role is now effectively split between de Ferran and Andrea Stella, who has been appointed performance director.
Alonso insisted he was not consulted on the changes, although the fact that two individuals with ties to him have been put in senior positions suggests this is a team being shaped in his image. While his plans for 2019 are yet to be confirmed, the reformed trackside management must boost the chances of him remaining with Mclaren in F1 next season, even though Mclaren is still evaluating what would be a two-car Indycar team.
Mclaren has not previously commented on its technical leadership since Tim Goss was moved out of his role as technical director in May. But it has now been confirmed that team COO Simon Roberts is overseeing the technical side, with further recruitments planned that could yet include a more direct replacement for Goss.
“Simon Roberts, who reports to me, will have the technical team continue to report into him and he’ll ultimately be responsible for giving us a fast race car,” said team boss Zak Brown. “We will continue to promote from within and bring in external talent; we need to improve our technical leadership.
“Gil de Ferran has been around very successful teams like Penske, had his own racing team, has been around F1, grew up racing in Europe, and he’s ultimately responsible for getting maximum performance out of the racing team.
“Andrea Stella is ultimately responsible on the pitwall, running race weekends, getting the most out of our racing car and environment. The three, along with myself and all of the other people on the racing team, are here to maximise racing
“GIL DE FERRAN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THE TEAM”
performance. This is the start of a journey.”
Brown admitted it will take years for Mclaren to get back to where a multiple championship-winning team should be. While Brown is adamant that the team will continue to fight for fourth in the constructors’ championship, it has slipped to seventh. It has, on average, the seventh fastest car over the season, but during the recently completed triple-header it slipped to ninth, ahead only of Williams.
While Boullier had repeatedly stated he would not resign, justifiably citing his strong record in motorsport that included winning races at the helm of what is now Renault (then as Lotus) and with junior squads DAMS and Racing Engineering, it had been clear in recent races that he was unlikely to see out the season with Mclaren. This latest raft of changes is part of an ongoing process it is hoped will get the team back into a position to win races.
Mclaren is undertaking a comprehensive process of reviewing its weaknesses, with Brown admitting in an interview with Autosport earlier this year that the problems of the Honda years masked some of the team’s own shortcomings.
De Ferran believes he can use the fastidious process of self-criticism and self-improvement that helped him be a successful driver to help Mclaren recover from the serious aerodynamic problems that have blighted its season.
“The success I had behind the wheel and any success I have as a businessman, I think came from really trying to understand what my weaknesses were,” said de Ferran. “I was not afraid to look in the mirror and say, ‘I could have done better here, I could have done better there, what do I need to do to improve?’
“Very few people are able to achieve many things in life by themselves, most of them are part of a team. It’s knowing how to get a team together, working together and getting people to feel focused and motivated and really understand where they are going, and truly engage really – because the best ideas I think come in the middle of the night when you’re thinking about all the good stuff for the next day.”
Mclaren’s current focus is on troubleshooting its MCL33 chassis. Brown recently admitted the team had an aero problem it could not replicate in the Toyota Motorsport windtunnel in Cologne.
This has played a part in the startling revelation that the 2018 car has less downforce than its predecessor, with Alonso suggesting rule changes affecting the rear of the car – potentially the elimination of exhaust blowing to the monkey seat and tweaks to the sharkfin wing – have held it back.