Turning McLaren around will be a Herculean Task

Published 06/28/2018, 6:36 AM EDT

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Former McLaren designer John Barnard believes that if McLaren are to return to the top, big changes will be required. However, the effort would be so massive that the team’s existence could be in jeopardy.

Barnard was a major contributor to McLaren’s revival during Ron Dennis‘ tenure in 1980. His revolutionary MP4/1 carbon-fibre concept set the standard for chassis design in F1 and motorsport. His efforts put the team back in the winner’s circle in 1981.

The British engineer addressed his former team’s performance slump at the launch of his book “The Perfect Car”.

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Barnard said that turning around McLaren would require abandoning the outfit’s “matrix” management structure. But he admitted that it would be a near impossible task.

“They’ve had this matrix management system installed by probably [former boss] Martin Whitmarsh, and you’ve got to break that down, I don’t think that works. You have to change the thinking,” Barnard said.

“I don’t know how long that will take, [or] whether the team can survive that kind of a fundamental turnaround.

“Considering that when we joined McLaren in 1980 the problems I had then trying to change the way things were done, we’re talking about a fairly small operation [then].

“If you take those problems to today with the numbers of people there, I wouldn’t relish that job. It’s like turning an oil tanker.”

Barnard believes that the company’s foray into the automotive industry under former chairman and CEO Ron Dennis likely impacted its Formula 1 efforts.

“I was always very worried about diversifying,” admitted Barnard.

“I know Ron’s idea was he wanted this big group of companies, this big mega operation and he would sit over the whole thing, and he achieved it.

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“But I think he achieved it at the cost of the Formula 1 team.”

Barnard revealed that he had often urged Dennis to helm the F1 team once again.

“I kept saying to Ron, ‘who is running the Formula 1 thing? You have to be back on the Formula 1 thing pulling it together; no one else can do it, just you’,” Barnard said.

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“[Dennis would reply] ‘yeah, I’ve got these guys and they’re this and they’re that’.

“I’m looking at McLaren today and thinking maybe if he’d taken a bit of that on board things might be different.”

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Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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