McLaren CEO Zak Brown has suggested years of inconsistent leadership at Woking resulted in the team’s slump in performance in 2018.
A switch to Renault engines was supposed to be the catalyst for a resurgence of the British outfit this season following three tough years with Honda.
Though the team started well, with Fernando Alonso scoring points in the first five races, performance would go off the rails as development stalled and flaws with the car emerged leaving McLaren trailing with Williams at the back of the grid.
In July, Brown led an overhaul of the management structure including ousting Eric Boullier, but he suggested the issues went deeper when offering a candid look back on a difficult year.
“What has taken us here, the problems of this season were in the making for years,” he was quoted by F1i.com. “My summary would be that we lacked consistency in leadership.
“I don’t want to point to anyone, but there was a lack of focus for everything that was going on from the board down: investments, mergers of companies, changes in management, changes in executive directors, and ultimately, lack of attention.
“That is what created the problem. What happened was that people did not have clear objectives, a responsibility.”
Though the car remained uncompetitive, Brown has suggested the issues have been found and even claimed a B-spec would have been developed had the time being available.
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Ultimately, what he is suggesting then is the situation at McLaren should be better in 2019 for the all-new driver line-up of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz.
“Our company has a lot of individual talent, a hundred people who have been with us for 20 years. We have not had the correct structure and that’s what we want to correct,” he said.
“Now we are on the road to recovery. As I told the people of McLaren, the feeling will be good before the results will be good.
“The development is going well, the teamwork, collaboration, communication and the responsibilities. Everything that we were short on, now we’re doing well,” he added.
“But until we get the new car on track, people will not be able to see the improvements we’ve made. I think this year has been the low point.
“We work hard to recover, but it will take a while,” Brown concluded.
