McLaren: Boullier’s resignation “not a surprise” for Zak Brown
The surprise departure of Eric Boullier from his position at McLaren forced the British team to restructure its organization chart, as explained by Zak Brown, the CEO at Woking.
Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren, commented on Eric Boullier’s resignation. The two men had long discussions before announcing the Frenchman’s decision: « Eric’s resignation is not a surprise. I’ve spent a lot of time with the team, a lot of time with him; I’ve known him for a very long time. Obviously, we’ve been under a lot of pressure and faced a prolonged period of underperformance. So Eric and I had many discussions on how to improve the situation at McLaren and how to go about achieving that. It’s something we’ve talked a lot about, our challenges and potential ways to address them. Naturally, he wants the best for McLaren, as do we all. When he made his decision, it wasn’t really a surprise. » stated the American businessman to our colleagues at Autosport.
In the new organization put in place following Boullier’s departure, Andrea Stella is promoted to become the director in charge of performance and responsible for track operations. A logical choice for Zak Brown: He will be the leader on track during the race by maximizing weekend performance. He will consult and collaborate, whether it’s with engineers, Gil de Ferran, or Paul James […] Andrea is there to maximize the weekend.
To replace Boullier, logic gives the edge to Gil de Ferran, winner of the Indianapolis 500, double CART champion and already present at McLaren for a few months as a consultant: « Gil is here in a sporting context to maximize the performance of the team and the drivers. He will give us a fresh perspective. We brought in Gil a few months ago because we identified that we could probably use someone with Gil’s sporting experience to get the best out of our drivers and engineers. » explains Brown.
The arrival of Gil de Ferran was not seen as a backup solution in the event of Boullier’s departure, according to Brown: « It wasn’t our plan at that time to have him in this role. What we identified was an area where we thought he could contribute and, as we worked with him and things evolved, it naturally made sense that we thought he would make an excellent sporting director. But this wasn’t precisely defined when he started »
The question of whether Fernando Alonso will stay at McLaren after Boullier’s departure, to whom he was very close, does not seem to worry the American leader either: « Fernando is someone who has a history here at McLaren, he is a huge asset. Each of you would recognize that he is the best driver on the grid, I think everyone would certainly say one of the best drivers. He has a lot of experience and I have developed a very good personal working relationship with him. He is part of this process, he contributes to the advancement of McLaren ». concludes Brown.
