85 replies to this topic

[Gilles4Ever]

McLaren @McLarenF1

Eric Boullier appointed Racing Director. Official McLaren Mercedes press release: pic.twitter.com/nvEGa0vbgT

[Looserke]

Eric Boullier appointed Racing Director. Official McLaren Mercedes press release

[chumma]

Welcome Eric!

[bideford1]

[Rocket73]

So is EB team principal? Or there is one above him?

[silense]

Eric Boullier appointed Racing Director. Official McLaren Mercedes press release: pic.twitter.com/nvEGa0vbgT

[charly0418]

There's someone between Boullier and Dennis. For now it will be Neale

 

but my guess is that it will be Ross Brawn

[David Lightman]

Didn't expect that exactly, wonder who this middle man will be then? I think MW does at least deserve a mention, they've clearly dumped him.

[peroa]

Well, the head-honcho position still available.

[LuckyStrike1]

 

 

The CEO of McLaren Racing is above Racing Director EB and yet to be named. And the CEO of McLaren Racing reports to CEO McLaren Gropu aka Ron Dennis. Ron Dennis does not report to ANYONE. But he consults with God. 

 

So a CEO of McLaren Racing is to be named. Could be Martin Whitmarsh getting a more strategic role while EB has the more hands on role. 

[Rocket73]

I thought RD was CEO...the plot thickens

[Owen]

Great stuff.

[EvanRainer]

There's someone between Boullier and Dennis. For now it will be Neale

 

but my guess is that it will be Ross Brawn

 

I doubt it. It sounds like it's a buisness oriented position which I guess makes sense seeing how McLaren Racing is a separate entity and not just the team.

 

I wonder if they may still stick MW in there thinking he is probably more suited for that kind of role.

Edited by EvanRainer, 29 January 2014 - 10:29.

[Jackmancer]

Great choice by McLaren, and Boullier as well. Lotus might be a sinking ship.

 

Boullier is a top act.

[Risil]

I wonder if they may still stick MW in there thinking he is probably more suited for that king of role.

 

If they were going to "promote" internally they probs wouldn't have Jonathan Neale standing in as caretaker. Joe Saward says Whitmarsh has been offered head of the expanding Applied Technologies division, which makes sense to me as it's what I predicted. They can't not be talking to Brawn. Perhaps Adam Parr could be considered if they'll delay the appointment till, I don't know, April or something.

 

But given McLaren's recent proneness to cock-ups I've got my money on Dany Bahar.

Edited by Risil, 29 January 2014 - 10:24.

[taran]

 

 

 

The CEO of McLaren Racing is above Racing Director EB and yet to be named. And the CEO of McLaren Racing reports to CEO McLaren Gropu aka Ron Dennis. Ron Dennis does not report to ANYONE. But he consults with God. 

 

So a CEO of McLaren Racing is to be named. Could be Martin Whitmarsh getting a more strategic role while EB has the more hands on role. 

 

 

Actually, Ron reports to the board. He 'only' owns 25% of the company and thus has to answer to the other owners. And as reported, he has tried to get rid of Whitmarsh for several years and only now was allowed to do so. His power is thus quite limited for a person of his stature within McLaren.

[Jackmancer]

Lotus F1 Team ‏@Lotus_F1Team 8m

Congrats and good luck to @EBoullier just announced as Racing Director of @McLarenF1 #F1

 

 

 

 

 

Very sporty from Lotus, at least their Twitter account, to wish Boullier luck.

[EvanRainer]

I thought RD was CEO...the plot thickens

 

RD is head of the whole McLaren group. This does show how ever, that RD has no intention of being directly involved (in terms of taking a position) within McLaren racing, let alone being TP like some wanted.

 

As far as Brawn goes, I still don't see why he'd be interested in this kind of position. But I don't base that on anything concrete, just how I read the person.

[noikeee]

It had been expected that Boullier would take the team principal role, but McLaren now looks set to implement a structure where there is no straight team boss.

 

(from the Autosport article)

 

lolwut

 

Surely that's not correct. Reminds me of Toyota's design by comittee.

[Ian G]

As far as Brawn goes, I still don't see why he'd be interested in this kind of position. But I don't base that on anything concrete, just how I read the person.

 

Journo's think he's in talks with Honda,its just a matter of whether its 2014 or 2015 but they've been wrong before with Mac. 

[blacksheep79]

from german f1 page

 

"In Kürze werden wir die Identität des neuen McLaren-Geschäftsführers bekannt geben, der an mich berichten wird und an den Eric berichten wird", so Dennis

 

new tp will be announced soon

[Sonic2k]

from german f1 page
 
"In Kürze werden wir die Identität des neuen McLaren-Geschäftsführers bekannt geben, der an mich berichten wird und an den Eric berichten wird", so Dennis
 
new tp will be announced soon

Geschäftsführer=CEO

So that doesn't necessarily mean that this person will be tp too. But I can be wrong.

[Lights]

Funny how McLaren previously laughed away rumours of Eric becoming the new CEO. That sort of faded the rumors about him joining McLaren, to then become the Racing Director.

[P123]

Good choice by McLaren, but another layer of management to be added.  A lot will depend on how well the various personalities mesh.  Obviously there has already been a fair amount of politics behind the scenes with not all willing to work with Whitmarsh- seems like Neale was very much in the Dennis camp.

[bauss]

not MW's biggest fan as some know, but its super cold the way McLaren are acting like he didn't exist. 

 

Mention him and thank him or something, if you are gonna fire someone biggest FU is act like he was never there. That's cold for someone who gave over 20 years of his life to the organization.

[Buttoneer]

Confused about what this really means.  Does the racing buck stop with Eric as per Domenicali at Ferrari or has he taken an effective demotion to move to McLaren?  Is his le final word dans le prat perch?

 

Sounds like there's still room for Sam above him haha.

 

My only thought for Whitmarsh is that it appears Ron will offer him a role within McLaren in order to ensure that he doesn't take a role at another F1 team.  He removes an experienced TP from the talent pool that way.

[dau]

Funny how McLaren previously laughed away rumours of Eric becoming the new CEO. That sort of faded the rumors about him joining McLaren, to then become the Racing Director.

 

http://www.pitpass.c...Boullier-report

 

Well, at least they had an exclusive denial.

 

 

 

But that's great news for McLaren. Now fans have to choice of blaming either Sam Michael orEric Boullier for everything that goes wrong.

[SophieB]

Funny how McLaren previously laughed away rumours of Eric becoming the new CEO. That sort of faded the rumors about him joining McLaren, to then become the Racing Director.

I don't think they ever did deny he was joining the team, they just denied he was going to Jerez with them.

[Knot]

Confused about what this really means.  Does the racing buck stop with Eric as per Domenicali at Ferrari or has he taken an effective demotion to move to McLaren?  Is his le final word dans le prat perch?

 

Sounds like there's still room for Sam above him haha.

 

My only thought for Whitmarsh is that it appears Ron will offer him a role within McLaren in order to ensure that he doesn't take a role at another F1 team.  He removes an experienced TP from the talent pool that way.

 

Sounds to me that EB will be running the racing side of racing , and whomever gets slotted above him will handle the business side of racing...

 

...whilst Ron Dennis peers sternly down upon them from his office on high.

[Gilles4Ever]

Andrew Benson @andrewbensonf1

Lot of speculation that racing director (Boullier) & sporting director (Michael) sound like same job. McLaren say not so - Boullier is boss

[ElDictatore]

What was the last racing director they had?

 

 

 

 

 

The CEO of McLaren Racing is above Racing Director EB and yet to be named. And the CEO of McLaren Racing reports to CEO McLaren Gropu aka Ron Dennis. Ron Dennis does not report to ANYONE. But he consults with God. 

 

So a CEO of McLaren Racing is to be named. Could be Martin Whitmarsh getting a more strategic role while EB has the more hands on role. 

 

 

Why should he consult with himself?

[ElDictatore]

Actually, Ron reports to the board. He 'only' owns 25% of the company and thus has to answer to the other owners. And as reported, he has tried to get rid of Whitmarsh for several years and only now was allowed to do so. His power is thus quite limited for a person of his stature within McLaren.

 

Did he ever say that or was there ever any official statement that shared that sentiment? To me it sounds more like it's a wild guess about what goes inside behind closed doors.

[LuckyStrike1]

Actually, Ron reports to the board. He 'only' owns 25% of the company and thus has to answer to the other owners. And as reported, he has tried to get rid of Whitmarsh for several years and only now was allowed to do so. His power is thus quite limited for a person of his stature within McLaren.

 

 

don't know what Ron thinks about Whitmarsh now compared to before, I'm not so sure Whitmarsh has gone from the successor to straight out the door though. In large organisations there is usually the trick to find the right person for the right position. Whitmarsh might bet the wrong person for the team manager role but still an asset for McLaren Racing and the McLaren group. 

 

However - Ron only reports to God. Because he is God. It must be like that. 

 

I am by the way an atheist which explains my opinion about Ron Dennis ;) 

[peroa]

What was the last racing director they had?

 

 

 

Why should he consult with himself?

Whitmarsh's job got split into two.

[peroa]

don't know what Ron thinks about Whitmarsh now compared to before, I'm not so sure Whitmarsh has gone from the successor to straight out the door though. In large organisations there is usually the trick to find the right person for the right position. Whitmarsh might bet the wrong person for the team manager role but still an asset for McLaren Racing and the McLaren group. 

 

However - Ron only reports to God. Because he is God. It must be like that. 

 

I am by the way an atheist which explains my opinion about Ron Dennis ;) 

Wasn't there a rumour that he got offered being CEO of Applied Technologies?

[GodHimself]

What was the last racing director they had?

 

 

 

Why should he consult with himself?

 

I confirm that Ron sometimes consults with myself. Most of the time however, he does that only to do something completely opposite to what I said. I suspect he must also consult with another guy. 

 

GodHimself

[study]

I'd say Sam sounds obsolete 

[Fastcake]

Well that seems to suggest McLaren are going down the Mercedes route of having separate heads for the racing and management sides. Interesting times.

[Lights]

http://www.pitpass.c...Boullier-report

 

Well, at least they had an exclusive denial.

 

 

 

But that's great news for McLaren. Now fans have to choice of blaming either Sam Michael orEric Boullier for everything that goes wrong.

Fair enough, I forgot it was just pitpass

[Lazy]

 

However - Ron only reports to God. Because he is God. It must be like that. 

 

I am by the way an atheist which explains my opinion about Ron Dennis ;) 

So your opinion is that he doesn't exist?

[Buttoneer]

Or that scientific peer-reviewed evidence of his existence is the only acceptable proof.

[mclarensmps]

So here is what my take on the three positions at McLaren:

Sporting Director - Takes care of non-racing responsibilities such as: Logistics, Testing, Driver-Management, Rules-Management (i.e. interfacing between FIA and the team)

 

Racing Director - Takes care of racing responsibilities (ala core duties of "team principal): Operations (pit crew, strategy, etc), management of R&D, overseeing the races, day-to-day management of team

 

CEO - Takes care of everything required to make the team go racing: Budget, finding sponsors, reporting to the board, business decisions, payroll, employee management, hiring and firing, etc

 

I am guessing they are looking at a structure that is similar to this, and if so, Boullier is a fantastic option for the position that he has been given, because that is what he excels at. 

[Mc_Silver]

Good transfer from Macca. Welcome to McLaren Scientific Technology Center Eric    Let's see who is he gonna  report to, Ross Brawn maybe? Eric reports to Ross and Ross reports directly to Dennis? 

[alframsey]

Brilliant appointment if you ask me and a good move for both parties.

[shonguiz]

I don't like this, I was optimist when I thought Boullier would be the new tp, but this new structure with possibly no tp position anymore is a bad decision and reminds me the stupid decisions they made on the technical front when they decided that there shouldn't be a superstar designer anymore but a complete committee that oversees things, that costed them newer and many unsuccessful years.

[ElDictatore]

I don't like this, I was optimist when I thought Boullier would be the new tp, but this new structure with possibly no tp position anymore is a bad decision and reminds me the stupid decisions they made on the technical front when they decided that there shouldn't be a superstar designer anymore but a complete committee that oversees things, that costed them newer and many unsuccessful years.

 

The seasons after Newey were better than before actually. Not saying because of him, but if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out.

The thought of not having a superstar designer is basically that they don't want to be dependant on one person or be a 'one-man-show generally'. Obviously both have their advantages and disadvantages but you have to give them some credit that they stick to their philosophy and to a degree it works.

 

Although I think EB will be a good addition to Macca, I'm not sure what to make of the new structures Ron wants to implement. For some reason, I think we're in for a 'bang' soon.

[MinT]

What is this fascination from the teams lately for wanting more chiefs than Indians...

[BillBald]

Confused about what this really means.  Does the racing buck stop with Eric as per Domenicali at Ferrari or has he taken an effective demotion to move to McLaren?  Is his le final word dans le prat perch?

 

Sounds like there's still room for Sam above him haha.

 

My only thought for Whitmarsh is that it appears Ron will offer him a role within McLaren in order to ensure that he doesn't take a role at another F1 team.  He removes an experienced TP from the talent pool that way.

 

Your French is rubbish.

 

It should be:

 

le word final

le perch au prat

 

I just have this penchant for getting it right!   

[Buttoneer]

Merci Monsieur le pedant.

[pdac]

What is this fascination from the teams lately for wanting more chiefs than Indians...

 

Not sure what it means here but in general I've found that companies introduce more levels in their managerial hierarchy when the think things are about to go belly-up. That way the higher ups have more people to make scapegoats of when it all goes wrong.