McLaren has announced the departure of its technical director and the overhaul of its organization with the recruitment, in particular, of David Sanchez at Ferrari.
McLaren announced on Thursday a major technical restructuring within his team. Executive Technical Director James Key, in office since 2019, packs his bags with immediate effect while David Sanchez, who recently left Ferrari, arrives at Woking. All in a delicate context since the English team completely missed its start to the season with an MCL60 not at the level and no points scored by Lando Norris et Oscar Piastri during the first two Grands Prix of the season.
With this reorganization, McLaren has chosen above all to no longer have a single technical director but a pole made up of three specialists who will report directly to team principal Andrea Stella. This trio will include future signing David Sanchez, but only from January 1, 2024, when the Frenchman has served a long notice period. He will then become technical director in charge of the concept and performance of the single-seater, within a structure through which he has already passed between 2007 and 2012.
The other two positions are entrusted to Peter Prodromou, who becomes technical director in charge of aerodynamics, and to Neil Houldey, now technical director in charge of engineering and design.
James Key is no longer McLaren’s technical director.
The restructuring presented by McLaren does not stop there as Giuseppe Pesce is promoted to head of the aerodynamics department under Peter Prodromou. Piers Thynne will take over as Chief Operating Officer to provide valuable support to Andrea Stella at the top of the pyramid.
“First of all, I would like to thank James for his work and his investment at McLaren, and I wish him the best of luck for the future.”points out Andrea Stella. “Looking forward, I am determined to bring McLaren back to the fore. Since taking over as team principal, I have been given a mandate to take a strategic approach that ensures the team is built on long-term foundations on which we can build over the years. This new structure brings clarity and efficiency within the technical department of the team and puts us in a strong position to maximize performance, in particular by optimizing the new infrastructure evolutions that we will have in 2023.”
In particular, McLaren must finally be able to rely in the coming months on the new wind tunnel built in Woking and recently completed. It has now entered a crucial calibration phase.
