McLaren explain major team decision to avoid F1 'dictator'

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has outlined he was keen to avoid creating a “dictator” inside the squad.

The Woking-based squad is enjoying a highly successful campaign, winning 11 out of the 14 races staged to date.

The team opted to develop a major restructuring path a handful of years ago under Stella's leadership, which saw it split the technical director role into three different areas.

Currently, it has Neil Houldey (engineering), Peter Prodromou (aerodynamics) and Mark Temple (performance) heading each department.

Recalling the period when the decision was announced, Stella stated there was some puzzlement in the paddock over its direction.

"The first step was to look at the team with a map, and understand what is world championship material and what is not,” Stella told Motorsport.com.

“But also, to identify who are the key leaders that will have to lead their own areas. And the final bit was believing in a model based on collaboration.

"I still remember when we announced that we were going from one to three technical directors, there were so many questions about who makes the decisions. 

“For me, who makes the decisions has never been a problem, because my normal way of looking at things is so collaborative that who doesn't have those kinds of attributes is just not, simply, at the table in the first place.”

McLaren has since added Rob Marshall, a long-time Red Bull employee, to its senior technical set-up.

Stella stated the team has become more comfortable with having a collective mind making decisions, rather than a single individual.

"Decisions normally tend to be just a critical mass of information accumulated, rather than having a dictator that at some stage will make a decision,” he said. 

“Zak and I believed that this is possible. And since then we have added Rob Marshall, which is then a fourth TD, and the dynamics have not changed.

But the cultural foundation and behavioural attributes should never degrade, otherwise this model starts to suffer. 

“So, it requires a lot of presence, a lot of understanding of what's going on in the business to protect this way of working.

"It's the human interactions that give real meaning to what we achieve."