It appears that McLaren is going through something of a shift. A technical reorganization was already observed at the Woking-based team, where James Key served as the technical director. However, in the wake of James Key departing as Technical Director, Rob Marshall, who is currently employed by Red Bull, will join the Woking-based squad on January 1 to help McLaren. Throughout this continuous time of transition and miseries where the technical executive team is still adapting, Lando Norris has been the one to watch out for. Why? It’s because he has been contributing extremely significant information to the team’s discussions. The McLaren designer who once was in charge of creating the legendary Ayrton Senna’s winning vehicle has explicitly confirmed this.

McLaren had great expectations for this season after going through a trying time last year. But the squad has appeared to have been experiencing even more emotional ups and downs from the start of the campaign. Lando Norris didn’t have a chance of placing in the top three in the Qualis until the Spanish Grand Prix. Besides, the side had been through a nightmare in Miami. The McLaren team’s outside-of-points finish at the Spanish GP added to the tension when Oscar Piastri finished the race on P13 at the Barcelona track, and Norris tumbled down a P17, after starting from P3.

And despite their continuous challenges, Norris and Piastri have received praise from a mastermind who is part of McLaren’s long and distinguished history. Neil Oatley is the person to whom we are referring. The most significant Formula 1 championship-winning vehicle created by this individual was those driven to victory by Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. Neil established his talent with the design of the 1989 McLaren Honda MP4/5, which had enormous challenges in matching the success of the MP4/4. When Ayrton Senna won back-to-back championships in 1990 and 1991, Oatley remained the sole architect of the cars of the legendary driver.

When questioned on the Beyond the Grid podcast, about how the McLaren lads have been performing so far in his thoughts, veteran Neil Oatley responded, “They both are Wonderful kids really. Both growing up through Motorsports for a long period of their lives and their free attitude to what the modern driver has to do is much more of a scientist than the drivers were a few years ago. More of an on their ability to pick up on data, learn from it being able to properly adjust themselves to try and make the best out of the equipment they’ve got infront of them.”

Ex McLaren Mastermind Exposes Alain Prost’s Dark Arts Deployed to ‘Annoy’ Ayrton Senna in Order to Gain an Advantage

Younger McLaren supporters have only observed how Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris have improved the Woking-based garage’s appearance of happiness. However, they might learn something from the veteran designer who observed how the atmosphere around McLaren was in the 1990s, during the reign of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. So let’s hear what Oatley had to say about the rivalry between the two greats.

Neil Oatley describes the environment surrounding Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna’s rivalry

Between 1988 and 1989, the Frenchman and Brazilian worked at McLaren. The Honda-powered McLaren was the most effective team at the time. While competing against Prost in the same car in 1988 and displaying some of the most refined maneuvers, Senna captured his maiden championship. This year, their rivalry was at its fiercest. Neil recalled an instance in which Prost put on an act just to annoy the Brazilian driver during qualifying in Portugal.

While speaking of how brilliant that day Prost was, Oatley responded to Tom Clarkson’s question when he asked, “I think he got changed into his jeans mid-qualifying and then stood on the pit wall just to Annoy Senna. Is that true ?”

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To this, he responded, “That’s absolutely true. Yeah. I mean, he was phenomenally quick, and literally, I think half an hour into the session, he went off to the truck, got changed into his Civis and just leant on the pitbull looking into Ethan’s garage and (laughed).”

Later, while revealing the dirty air in McLaren’s garage, Oatley stated, “Obviously it did get a little bit more tense in 89 and I think from him onwards, the drivers just didn’t speak to each other. But the drivers would never speak to each other. If, if Alan wanted to know something about ayrton’s car, he’d ask Steve and if Aison wanted to know something, he’d ask me and not Alan. So it’s slightly strange situation but not really any animosity evident.”

WATCH THIS STORY: $300,000 McLaren Legacy Dedicated to Ayrton Senna Craned into $39,000,000 Penthouse

Do you believe that the McLaren duo will exert enough pressure to cause their previously friendly conflicts to become bitter rivalries as the competition heats up?