On Thursday, McLaren announced a reshuffle of technical headquarters and the resignation of James Key from the position of technical director. Former Formula 1 car designer and now technical expert Gary Anderson suggests the reshuffle will not help the British team in the short term.
Gary Anderson: McLaren has had a very poor start to the 2023 season. Usually there are many reasons for this, but the technical director is punished first and James Key has already suffered.
I’m not saying James didn’t have a hand in McLaren’s poor start, but in my opinion it’s always better to strengthen the organization and not rebuild it, as McLaren apparently did.
See how they work at Red Bull. The team has an obvious and the only technical boss that everyone knows and who is fully responsible for the result – good or bad. Yes, Adrian Newey has many first class subordinates, but it is he who sets the direction for development and his associates find a way to turn his instructions into reality.
McLaren created a clearer management structure, but it didn’t work out the last time Newey moved from them to Red Bull, and this time they will have problems too. The main problem is that the people who make decisions about the dismissal of a particular specialist also bear their share of responsibility for the team’s difficulties, but they will never replace themselves.
This whole story is like football. In that case, the team fires the coach, who naturally adds to the club’s problems. However, we are seeing a vicious circle, with coaches moving from team to team after yet another firing, and it’s only a matter of time before the problem reoccurs and he gets fired. Formula 1 teams are much bigger than football clubs and it is rare for one person to be the cause of all their problems.
In Formula 1, stability is crucial. It’s important to get to the root of the problems and make changes that really help. If the technical team needs to be strengthened to do this then so be it, but unilateral changes will only delay the inevitable as everyone takes on their new responsibilities.
I was in a similar situation at Jaguar but it didn’t help the team and I don’t see how the reshuffle will help McLaren in the near future.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
