Brown says Seidl is 'the best team boss in the pitlane'

McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown says his hiring of Andreas Seidl in 2019 has led to the German becoming in his opinion "the best team principal in the pitlane".

Seidl joined McLaren two years ago after a successful tenure at Porsche where he oversaw the manufacturer's championship winning LMP1 program in the WEC.

Brown recruited Seidl as part of McLaren's management overhaul, entrusting the 45-year-old engineer with the day-to-day running of its F1 operations.

The two men have distinct responsibilities within McLaren's structure, but Brown believes Seidl has been instrumental in the Woking-based outfit's fruitful efforts to advance up F1's pecking order in the past two seasons.

"I think the structure we have at McLaren works extremely well for us," said Brown, quoted by Motorsport.com.

"Andreas and I have an outstanding working relationship. I think it's extremely clear what my role is, what Andreas' role is, and it is very clear to the team too.

"My job as CEO of McLaren Racing is to field the most competitive, financially sustainable racing team, not only in F1, but anything else that we may venture into like IndyCar etc.

"I think my job is to get the best people in the business, and I think we've done that. I think Andreas is the best team principal in the pitlane, in my humble opinion."

Brown oversees McLaren Racing's overall strategic decisions, but while Seidl answers to the American, he is his own man at the helm of the company's F1 team.

"I don't know how to run an F1 team, it's not my competency," Brown added. "That's what Andreas is awesome at.

"So my job is to give him the freedom, the support, and the financial resources to allow him to do his thing. So Andreas has full authority to run the F1 team as he sees fit."

• Read also: Brown says contentious Mercedes comment was 'opinion not prediction'

Giving a free rein to Seidl has been a productive and efficient approach, but the German says he and his boss are very much "aligned" on the team's general direction, with "clear responsibilities and also clear accountabilities".

"I'm very happy with how we have defined responsibilities within McLaren Racing, and I'm very happy with Zak being the CEO of McLaren Racing, and being my boss also," Seidl said.

"He gives me in the end, the freedom and the support I need in order to bring my style and my experience and my way of how I want to set up an F1 team and lead it. And that's simply great.

"We are aligned on a lot of topics in terms of how we see the steps we have to make within the team.

"I think we can also see in the last three years that we already could make some good steps. But we also know that we are far away from where we want to be in a few years' time."

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