McLaren F1 team principal on why the new technical structure was needed: "That's where we have struggled"

McLaren F1 team principal Andrea Stella feels the new technical structure was the need of the hour as now the unit could work on bringing competitive ideas to the table.

The Woking-based squad has been going through some changes in the technical unit with quite a few new team members poached from rival teams.

Rob Marshall is a noted addition to the team as he moves from Red Bull to McLaren. The team has also signed David Sanchez who was a prominent personality in Ferrari. There has been a restructuring in the technical department as well as Stella tries to mitigate whatever issues have plagued the team in the past.

As quoted by Autosport, Stella talks about how the restructuring could help McLaren's new direction as he said:

“I think this configuration is strong, because it's not like about who makes decisions, but it's much more about how can we generate competitive ideas to bring to the table. What McLaren has been missing is not who makes decisions. It was more about, can we bring to the table competitive ideas to make a quick car. That's where we have struggled. We think this organization addresses this."

He added:

“Ultimately, this organisation is not dissimilar from a conceptual point of view from what happens in other teams. It pretty much is the way how Red Bull operates, for instance. In order to get the organisation to work efficiently, I think the most important thing is: what technical functions do you need to cover in modern Formula 1? For me, this is aerodynamics, performance, and concept.

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Picking the best leader in aerodynamics, performance, and concept is one of the keys to McLaren

Further explaining the philosophy behind the change in the structure within the team, Stella explained how the conception was divided into three parts of aerodynamics, performance, and concept. The next step was finding the best people for the job in those respective areas. He said:

“We talk about 2026 [new engine regulations]: who's going to look at 2026 and start to figure out, 'How should the car look like, as a whole?', which is performance and concept. Then you need to make all this become real, which is engineering and design."

He added:

“So, that's the approach we have adopted at McLaren, which is quite conceptual as an approach: aerodynamics, performance, and concept, engineering, and design. Then we decided we want to pick the best leader in each of these areas.”

The team is going through a transitional phase with two impressive talents in Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri driving for the team. It will be interesting to see what kind of progress the team makes in the next few years.