Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

'A huge change' in McLaren's culture

40

Share on..

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says there has "been a huge change in overall culture and philosophy" within the team this year.

Boullier joined the team at the start of the 2014 season and oversaw a difficult year as McLaren finished fifth in the constructors' championship. However, the switch to Honda power also came with a new approach at the team and Boullier says it has resulted in much more success when it comes to car development.

"There’s been a huge change in overall culture and philosophy," Boullier said. "At every level of the company, there is clear leadership. We agree the direction we want to pursue, and we bring people with us. The attitude has changed from ‘telling’ people, to ‘asking’ people; we’ve integrated people, and we share opinions and ideas.

“The main outcome of that new approach is that people now have a sense of ownership in the car. And they’re more motivated and interested as a result. To give you an example, I guess about 50 per cent of the upgrades we brought to the track last year didn’t completely work; this year, we’ve brought that down to about five or 10 per cent.”

Chief engineer Peter Prodromou was a new addition who helped execute the change and he says a new aerodynamic approach was crucial to any hopes of future success at McLaren.

“Over the last couple of seasons, the team slightly lost its way aerodynamically," Prodromou said. "It became obvious that if we’d carried on with the previous concept, there’d only be so much we could achieve.

“So we’ve begun to establish a new aerodynamic concept, and a different way of working, too. That new concept has majorly shaped where the team’s heading in the future.”

Click here for a look at the radical Honda power unit design

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.