Life after Ron Dennis at McLaren

By any measure it's been a torrid few years for the McLaren Technology Group.

The Formula 1 team lost Lewis Hamilton, nurtured from childhood to 2008 world champion by Woking, after 2013. It almost simultaneously lost 'works' Mercedes engines and spent a season as a Stuttgart customer before an underwhelming switch to Honda power.

And in 2014 came the departure of CEO Martin Whitmarsh, then the return and fall of boss man Ron Dennis.

Couple that with decreasing sponsor portfolios - certainly in terms in income, if not in terms of quantity of logos - a musical chairs structure that leaves senior managers unsure of their exact roles, and a 'who does/owns what?' relationship with associate company McLaren Automotive, and it is little wonder that confused strategy was the best product this engineering colossus could deliver in five years.

To illustrate the point, consider that this once mighty team squeaked into sixth in the 2016 classification, just 13 points (an average of 0.66 points per race despite having two world champion drivers in Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button) up on Toro Rosso, Red Bull's development outfit running previous-spec customer Ferrari power units and employing junior drivers without F1 wins on their CVs.

Given that the man at the top sets the tone of any company, it is little wonder that McLaren's management culture was recently described by a team insider as "being an extension of 'Ron-speak' [Dennis's verbal style] - muddled thinking battling to express itself through verbosity" before said individual pointed to the number of critical sponsors, technical partners and shareholders Dennis had fallen out with in recent years.

Unkind words, maybe, but an indicator of the frustration felt by long serving rank-and-file employees more used to glittering success under Dennis Mk1.

So it was little wonder that, in the run-up to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, it was announced that Dennis's legal challenge of the shareholders' decision to place him on gardening leave until his contract expires at the end of January had failed and that he was therefore no longer CEO of the McLaren Technology Group.

Dennis, who remains a 25% and 10% shareholder of MTG and Automotive respectively, had invited these wealthy shareholders - the Saudi Ojjeh family of TAG fame, plus the Bahraini royal family - into McLaren in the first place.

Simultaneously it was revealed that F1's supreme marketer Zak Brown - also non-executive chairman of Autosport's sister title Motorsport.com - had been appointed executive director of McLaren Technology Group, holding company of the racing division, plus entities such as McLaren Applied Technologies and the premium Absolute Taste catering company. Folk consequently believed Brown (pictured below between Eric Boullier and Jonathan Neale) was Dennis's direct replacement.

Not so: effectively Brown oversees Ekram Sami, who remains head of McLaren Marketing, but has stepped down from the board in the wake of Dennis's ousting, and McLaren's racing operations; with Jonathan Neale continuing as chief operating officer of McLaren Technology Group, having back-of-house responsibility for McLaren's nuts and bolts operations.

The two men form a management team reporting to the shareholders.

"My job is very much running the machinery and operations of the organisation," explains Neale, an aerospace engineer with an honours degree in physics from Nottingham University, in an exclusive interview. "That's my history, that's my background, I've worked in high technology businesses for all my life. So it does what it says on the tin: chief operations officer.

"I'm very comfortable with that, and then Zak brings the strengths that Zak has to the team with that energy and that enthusiasm that you've seen.

"We have very complementary skills, as do the other directors, and I think if we now play with some width in our game, we could get results after all the work that we know that we need to do."

Part of that 'wide game' process is the recruitment of a Group CEO, effectively a replacement for Dennis, as Neale explains: "You've got this fantastic ground, you've great shareholders, you've got a very strong footprint in Automotive, Racing and McLaren Applied Technologies, and in order to develop that footprint, that needs a process to go through with the shareholders to replace [Dennis].

"So Zak and I will hold the fort in the short term, but of course there's the board of directors, they will have their responsibilities. And Ron is a director, he's non-executive chairman, he's a shareholder, he's as committed as ever he was."

Does Dennis continue as non-executive chairman, then?

"Yes, and that's the way it works in Automotive, because you've got Ron as non-executive chairman and Mike Flewitt as CEO."

As a McLaren long-timer, one with over 15 years' service, how disappointing is it for Neale to talk about a team without a title sponsorship prefix?

"Much is made of title sponsors, but I can't remember - I ought to know this, but I don't - when the last big title sponsorship was announced.

"The economic environment in Formula 1 has changed, and continues to change, for a number of reasons.

"So whether people are coming in as title [sponsors] or whether people are coming in in some way, as, if you like, principal sponsors - it's not an industry term.

"The good thing for McLaren is that when we're talking about a value proposition, of course there's the Formula 1 partnership and all that it entails, but there's also McLaren Applied Technologies and the McLaren Automotive footprint that we have at the McLaren Technology Centre.

"There is a very rich offering of engagement opportunities, which can offer B2B, B2C, media placements, hospitality, technology projects, and that can come as a basket.

"That's one of the areas, to be very fair to Ron, where in all the work that Ron's done with the board of directors and the shareholders, to get to this situation of having those multiple offerings, of different ways of engaging - that's been very good for us.

"When you look at the nature of engagement with large, blue-chip organisations, who may not need as much media coverage or hospitality, but want some in certain territories, like the US or like Russia or wherever, then we've got a broad offering."

Our interview took place before the departure of McLaren Racing CEO Jost Capito, who had only arrived in August 2016, three months before Dennis's exit. If Neale knew then about the fate of Capito - employed by Dennis from Volkswagen even before the fallout of the emissions scandal led VW to pull the plug on its ultra-successful World Rally Championship programme overseen by the German motorsport manager - he was too discreet to let on, but he did downplay Capito's recruitment.

"We're not all in control of our own futures, are we? In terms of the big changes in the team this year, I think the recruitment of Jost hasn't really had time yet to gel," said Neale, before turning to recent, lower-key hires.

"The biggest ones that have made the most difference to us have been one or two key appointments in our technical team, which has helped.

"People like Matt Morris and Peter Prodromou fill out the skill set in the team, and also the enrichment of the Honda technical team led by [Yusuke] Hasegawa-san (pictured below), and the interrelationship between them, so that when we're now talking about how the power unit is developed in the car, and we're talking about fuel and lube development as a part of that development process, it's a much more integrated process now.

"Inevitably to begin with they were perhaps more separate development programmes, just because in 2015 we were still in our infancy in that partnership. As it matures, and things get more integrated, we're able to make more progress. I'm much more confident than I was 12 months ago."

Asked about the "fuel and lube development process" against a background of speculation - detailed here and since confirmed - that McLaren partner ExxonMobil was transferring its technical and commercial support to Red Bull, Neale would only comment: "There is a change, but from what I've seen so far, we are hugely respectful and grateful for all of the work that ExxonMobil have done for us. But that's not top of my worries for the first quarter of 2017."

All well and good, but do changes of oil partner not involve changes to revenue streams? Sources suggest the Mobil deal was worth £12million annually - without the technical support package.

"Yes, it changes the whole equation, but Formula 1 is always about change," he said before refusing to be drawn on BP rumours.

Given that teams go into the winter break judged by their most recent performances, how does Neale summarise 2016 from a McLaren perspective? There is no beating about the bush:

"2016 has been a very challenging 12 months," he says, "but I'm optimistic that in terms of the brand strength and the continued improvement through the grid of the team, we have everything that we need to rebuild that confidence."

Sure, but it beats the ninth place of 2015 hands down...

"Obviously P6 in the constructors' championship is still a massive disappointment for a brand like ours.

"But we are a team on the move, and we certainly showed that in the first half of the year.

"We had a few issues that came to us from Japan onwards, in the way that the car handled in the high-speed corners.

"But we are seeing renewed interest and more confidence, both from Honda and ourselves, in our grasp of what is going on and what we need to do.

"And in particular I'm really pleased with the way that the relationship with Honda has developed this year so that we can really knuckle down together and jointly solve problems.

"So where they needed our help or we needed their help there's been a much easier relationship, and I think Hasegawa and [his commercial counterpart, Yoshiyuki] Matsumoto-san have set a really encouraging relationship foundation for us."

I put it to Neale that he seems remarkably bullish given the air of upheaval surrounding McLaren, not to speak of the disappointing results.

Does he see the situation improving in the short/medium term? Where, a year ago, McLaren management would have leapt at sixth in the championship, is fourth realistic going forward?

"No..." he says slowly.

OK, period of suspense over: higher or lower?

"Well, you've got to aim high, but right now I would be disappointed if we were fourth. That's probably the pragmatist's view, but you don't make progress as pragmatists. We want to win and we want to win sooner.

"We've got a race team, we've got drivers that are capable of winning, and between the chassis and engine, both ourselves and Honda need to bridge that gap in performance.

"The new aerodynamic platform and the great uncertainty over tyres throws an opportunity at us, and I'd like to think that we can capitalise on that. But it's unknown.

"Is somebody going to find a way of doing the equivalent of the double diffuser and persuade the FIA 'that's innovation, we're not driving a coach and horses through the regulations'? But that's what makes Formula 1 exciting for me.

"You only know what you're doing, and where you're aiming and how far you want to reach. You've got no idea of knowing what everybody else is going to do at that time. It's just speculation until you get to Melbourne and those five red lights go out; then you know for sure.

"You get a pretty good reading in the last test, but you don't know for sure until you're in Melbourne, and you've got everybody lined up on the same tyres at the same time."