McLaren is not having a good start to the 2023 racing season, with no points scored in the first two grand prix. So, they decided to make some changes – Key, who was part of the team since 2019, has left and McLaren has changed its structure.
McLaren is making a big change and they won’t have just one person in charge. Instead, they are having three people working together to make decisions. One of those three people will be David Sanchez who was previously the head of vehicle concept at Ferrari. He had to resign from Ferrari and he is currently on time off, but he’ll join McLaren in January 2024 as the Technical Director of Car Concept and Performance.
McLaren just created some new changes within their organization. Peter Prodromou is taking over as Technical Director, Aerodynamics and Neil Houldey is becoming the Technical Director of Engineering and Design. David Sanchez, who was a Principal Aerodynamicist at Ferrari, just received an award for Ferrari’s hard work from the Constructors Trophy.
Giuseppe Pesce is being made the head of Aerodynamics and is going to report to Prodromou. Piers Thynne will also have a bigger job as Chief Operating Officer for our Formula 1 race team, which involves making sure everything runs smoothly.
At the start of this year, Stella took over as team principal for McLaren and decided that it was time for a change within the technical department. She made sure to thank James (Key) for all his efforts while working there and wished him luck in his future endeavours. Finally, she declared her goal to bring the team back up to its previous success levels.
I have been given an important job in the team which is to make our foundation stronger for us in the years to come. My job also includes setting up a way that can help us improve and optimize our upgrades that arrive in 2023. This style of work will give more clarity and success within the technical department.
I’m so happy that David Sanchez has joined Peter and Neil on our Technical Executive team. We all want to make our cars go faster, and I know Piers will help us create a successful F1 team.
Sanchez is excited to be back at McLaren because he used to work there from 2007 until 2012. He said that he will work with Peter, Neil, and the whole team to reach their goals. Sanchez also mentioned that they have a bright future ahead of them because they are upgrading parts of the infrastructure this year.
