James Key Departs McLaren

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Not a huge surprise. Never lived up to the billing really

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Presuming Ed said:

Mclaren look like a team of Chiefs already. F1 doesn't operate under committee and i feel they have far too many people at director level and having 3 people replace one in design seems odd.

Actually in their heyday they had a matrix management system which effectively did that. It takes a long time to change the way a company works fundamentally (5 plus years), I think this restructure was planned for when Seidl left, he went early so its all pulled forward. Once this is embedded and the physical assets are complete and up and running if the results don't come then Zak will have failed as he'll have rolled all the dice then in terms of a Finance restructure, investment in assets, investment in personnel and an organisational restructure. Fingers crossed it works. He's a car man and its an historic team.

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deadslow said:

did RD not instigate the matrix management system after Newey was poached away, so that no single individual would be so 'uniquely important' going forward?

I think it was then yes

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Sandpit Steve said:

Yep, Seidl and now Key, two deckchairs on the sinking ship.

Lando must be hoping that Lewis retires at the end of this season, it’s his best chance to ever get into a winnable car.

Which car is that?

Zak's issue is that he took over a team with no money and a bunch of ancient out of date assets. It was always going to take a huge amount of time to turn round. I think (hope) its heading in the right direction. I think the first car that comes soley from the new wind tunnel will be the acid test

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Muzzer79 said:

Fundoreen said:

Alonso has been to blame since 2007 onward. Maybe him doing well now has finally quashed that go to excuse at mclaren.

Who from McLaren has blamed Alonso and when?

Another weird anti Fred comment.

I don't get them, Fred is very simple, work with him and he's magic, work against him and he gets upset, pretty much like anybody else.

As far as I see Mclaren are fully accepting of where they are and why they are there.

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maz8062 said:

Change of topic comment incoming. The young lad Piastri has definitely rattled Lando. Who would have thought a rookie would do an LH on him?

Back on topic, sorry

Has he? Im not sure ive seen any evidence of that?

He's shown what a poor Job DR was doing that's for sure. Carlos kept Lando honest, Piastri looks like he will too.

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I see the experts on here had Zak all worked out….

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Jordie Barretts sock said:

What The Deuces said:

I see the experts on here had Zak all worked out….

Which is why I steer clear of race weekend threads. Too many bags of wind that 'know'.

Today the customer showed the factory team the way home. Again.

Everyone seems to want immediate and perfect fixes every time.

You’re not wrong, I think Zak has done a great job, the team were in dire straits financially with old facilities. It has been a big job, more to do but trajectory is good

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Presuming Ed said:

To be fair I don’t think anyone could have seen the progress McLaren has made this season? The car was a dog back in March and the criticism Zak took back then was well deserved. I’ve no idea how they’ve improved the car so much. They’ve gone from the slowest car on the grid to hot on the heals of RB. Chapeau

It happened just as they said, they knew they’d taken the wrong direction and their first big upgrade would put them back on track….

All I’ll say is the deeper your Venturi tunnels under the car the less of an effect each mm of ride height change makes …