[morini]

It is funny, like you say, and talented bunch of designers & engineers. Maybe that statement is bolstered as it seems any upgrade other teams, especially the top teams bring along all have a strong resemblance to what we already see on the McLaren. So like you say leadership and stabilised focused structure needs implementing, question is who? Maybe the members who have been promoted have already started to correct everything internally. Alter the resource drive down the correct path. But, who knows.

The middle Eastern investors have too much say. That is the teams biggest problem in my view.

Ron courted the cash from the oil nations and eventually paid the price and lost his power. The workers left in the aftermath are the same people they always were. I believe they can be a top team with some capable (as in F1 domain capable) leadership / direction. I'm not just talking man management here, F1 is about getting the best out of the top specialist engineers in the world. That takes someone who understands F1 from an engineering perspective. That person (in my opinion) is not Zak Brown. I don't doubt he's an excellent businessman and man manager, but he's not the right bloke to be heading up a team of specialist F1 engineers.

I'm not on a witch hunt here, I just want to see someone more suited to the role take the team forward into the future. Heading up McLaren F1 team isn't a job for a marketing bloke.

[Jody Barton]

The issue as I see it is that McLaren do still have some top engineering talent, but not the underlings to refine the ideas. Take their rear suspension set up. Very, very clever, exceedingly complex, and supposedly part of the problem they're having with inconsistent drive out of the corners. In years gone by McLaren would already be on top of it. That they aren't is shocking.

We've all heard the rumours about staff needing to get permission to work on doing things that are their job. So something is wrong with the management culture. Compare that to how Red Bull and Mercedes work with very flat structures and freedom to explore and it's not hard to envision where it is all going wrong.

On the flip side we actually have to start asking questions about whether or not Peter Prodromou is all he's crack up to be. Remember McLaren being convinced during the Honda years they had the best Chassis? Best aero? Best bullshit more like. Now they have clear comparisons between Red Bull and Renault they are consistently nowhere. So is this talent any good?

This isn't a simple one or two season thing. It's way worse than that. It could take a decade before they're even thinking about race wins again. I really believe that, because right now they're not going to challenge under the current regulations, their concept is too far behind, and they've got too many correlation issues. Given this is essentially the team of engineers who screwed up the last regulations, and now these regulations, would you bet on them getting the 2021 regulations right?

[LotusLover]

It is funny, like you say, and talented bunch of designers & engineers. Maybe that statement is bolstered as it seems any upgrade other teams, especially the top teams bring along all have a strong resemblance to what we already see on the McLaren. So like you say leadership and stabilised focused structure needs implementing, question is who? Maybe the members who have been promoted have already started to correct everything internally. Alter the resource drive down the correct path. But, who knows.

The middle Eastern investors have too much say. That is the teams biggest problem in my view.

Ron courted the cash from the oil nations and eventually paid the price and lost his power. The workers left in the aftermath are the same people they always were. I believe they can be a top team with some capable (as in F1 domain capable) leadership / direction. I'm not just talking man management here, F1 is about getting the best out of the top specialist engineers in the world. That takes someone who understands F1 from an engineering perspective. That person (in my opinion) is not Zak Brown. I don't doubt he's an excellent businessman and man manager, but he's not the right bloke to be heading up a team of specialist F1 engineers.

I'm not on a witch hunt here, I just want to see someone more suited to the role take the team forward into the future. Heading up McLaren F1 team isn't a job for a marketing bloke.

Question is though, realistically who could take over? The guy at Sauber is doing great things by the looks of it Vasseur is it?? Anyway that team has been turned inside out and is now showing some great upturns back to its earlier days of early 2000s. That aside who would take on such a monumental project I am sure there are one or two here who know some possible solutions, perhaps delving in to F2 or another category perhaps?

[Jody Barton]

If rumours are to be believed (and I do take these with a pinch of salt) then McLaren will have an all new driver line up next year. Alonso has told the team he's off apparently, where to who knows, but latest rumour is Penske in IndyCar have signed him, and he has a wealth of title sponsors queing up over there to throw money at him. The team have also told Vandrone thanks but no thanks apparently as well. Currently scuttlebutt in the paddock is they'll partner Norris with Sainz. Not a bad driver line up and will free some of their cash up that has beein tied up in Alonso's mammoth wages (he's on comparable wages to Verstappen and Vettel apparently).

So where to spend that money? If Force India are in the financial shit then they should definitely bring Andrew Green in to McLaren as Technical director. He's work at Force India with limited resources speaks for itself, and he has produced some pretty big innovations the big boys have followed. Give him a bigger team of engineers and a larger budget and I think he'd get McLaren back on track. As for sporting director to replace Boullier I'd still like to see them bring in Leena Gade, give her a chance, was amazing in WEC, and apart from not getting to grips with Oval racing in IndyCar, showed she was fabtastic on more traditional and street circuits getting everything spot on. I'd love to see what she could do in F1.

The big issue is Brown. Who to replace him? I'm told on the commercial side of things he is good, very good at getting sponsorship money in and marketing... on the management structure and day to day running of the business he's not so hot. Maybe retaining him as Commercial Director is the way to go and then bring in a Managing Director, I suggested Whitmarsh earlier in the thread, but the two men do not get on. Not even remotely. I'm not sure who I'd look to bring in. Obviously if you had a dream pick you'd shoot for someone like Wolfgang Ullrich and just get shot of the likes of Brown, and maybe bring Porsche or Audi engines along with him. Just never going to happen sadly. But leadership at the top is the really big issue at McLaren, until that is sorted I can't see anything else making the big changes required.