CEO Zak Brown has identified his next area of overhaul within the McLaren organisation, opening up and simplifying the operating structure.
A poor run of form led to a major change in attitude at the British team, with racing director Eric Boullier stepping down before the Silverstone Grand Prix and being replaced by Gil de Ferran in the highest profile change as well as other promotions at Woking.
More new faces are expected in the coming weeks, but now it is the structure built up by Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh that has always been regarded as one of the most professional on the grid, that Brown believes is holding the team back today.
“The structure is not allowing certain individuals to be as entrepreneurial as I would like them to be,” the American told Motorsport.com.
“I think it has not enabled them to make decisions quickly enough. I think sometimes there is an appropriate time for a decision by committee, and then I think there’s also times when there should be decisions by individuals.
“At times our decision-making process and the speed with which we make decisions gets gridlocked. So that needs to be changed, and I think our biggest issue has been structural and organizational.”
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McLaren often became known, along with Ferrari, for being too safe and sticking to their traditional practices and not pushing boundaries as far as other teams, such as Red Bull since 2009 and more recently Mercedes.
That is something Brown now wants to open up, to try and get the most from the team of people he insists are more than capable of producing a great car.
“There is great talent that we need to unleash that in the current environment has not been able to blossom, and then also bringing in people from the outside that have other experiences to help contribute to shaping a quicker, faster organization,” he said.
“My job leading the F1 team is to ultimately put that pace into the organisation, give the direction, get the right leadership in place and get on with getting back to where I think everyone in this room recognises McLaren should be.”
