2023 - McLaren Formula 1 Team

[f1rules]

Buxton: When you look back on the decisions you made at the start of the season, getting rid of who you did and the changes, did you ever doubt yourself?

Zak: No. It made me realize I shouldn't have doubted myself originally and I should have made the changes 6 months earlier

[AR3-GP]

Buxton: When you look back on the decisions you made at the start of the season, getting rid of who you did and the changes, did you ever doubt yourself?

Zak: No. It made me realize I shouldn't have doubted myself originally and I should have made the changes 6 months earlier

wow.

[djos]

Buxton: When you look back on the decisions you made at the start of the season, getting rid of who you did and the changes, did you ever doubt yourself?

Zak: No. It made me realize I shouldn't have doubted myself originally and I should have made the changes 6 months earlier

wow.

That's a pretty damming indictment on Key - makes me wonder why Siedl hired him for the Audi project?

[trinidefender]

Buxton: When you look back on the decisions you made at the start of the season, getting rid of who you did and the changes, did you ever doubt yourself?

Zak: No. It made me realize I shouldn't have doubted myself originally and I should have made the changes 6 months earlier

I saw this quote in an article already. Mind sharing where you got it from?

[Slahinki]

Buxton said it on the post race show. That's where I saw it originally at least.

[f1rules]

Yeah was a qoute from the post race show, one cant help to think if maybe he means Seidl also, in that regard, Zak knew Seidl would stop at the end of his contract period and go elsewhere, so i think he also includes Seidl in this, regret i didnt make the change sooner...? That said, its incredible how a bad TD can suffocate a whole team like Key managed to do, if there is one thing though we can credit him, the mechanical concept of the car the suspension concepts seem pretty healthy, or this jump wouldnt be possible i quess, but everything else he sucked the life out of

[NL_Fer]

Current team performance is astonishing. But knowing how long it takes in f1, to take an idea to a functional part of the car, I cannot imagine that James isn’t a little bit responsible for current performance. I mean I was leading all the development from 2022 in the car, than even after he left, a team cannot create an upgrade package in such short time. Some ideas of the upgrade must already been on the table, while Key was still there.

[Macklaren]

Current team performance is astonishing. But knowing how long it takes in f1, to take an idea to a functional part of the car, I cannot imagine that James isn’t a little bit responsible for current performance. I mean I was leading all the development from 2022 in the car, than even after he left, a team cannot create an upgrade package in such short time. Some ideas of the upgrade must already been on the table, while Key was still there.

I? James, is that you? Don't worry Buddy, you'll do good at Audi...

[Moving Chicane]

Buxton: When you look back on the decisions you made at the start of the season, getting rid of who you did and the changes, did you ever doubt yourself?

Zak: No. It made me realize I shouldn't have doubted myself originally and I should have made the changes 6 months earlier

I saw this quote in an article already. Mind sharing where you got it from?

This was mentioned in the post race show (time stamp 42:20)

[Ground Effect]

Current team performance is astonishing. But knowing how long it takes in f1, to take an idea to a functional part of the car, I cannot imagine that James isn’t a little bit responsible for current performance. I mean I was leading all the development from 2022 in the car, than even after he left, a team cannot create an upgrade package in such short time. Some ideas of the upgrade must already been on the table, while Key was still there.

I don't believe James Key has any significant part, if any, for the current form of the team. At the start of the season, Stella was very clear that the last thing thing signed off by the previous structure (Key) was the Baku upgrade, which was basically a new floor that would open up a new avenue of performance upgrades and concept. If you remember, AMR's resurgence actually started 2nd half of 2022, Dan Fallows joined in April of same year.
Besides, Key had admitted that the various philosophies seen on the grid at the start of the ground effect era were also considered by the team, but they ended up going the conservative route. Obviously, that would have been his decision. They later saw those concepts were the right way to go, but were already far behind. So they probably had a good idea how they worked and the only factors now were time and budget.

[Ground Effect]

Current team performance is astonishing. But knowing how long it takes in f1, to take an idea to a functional part of the car, I cannot imagine that James isn’t a little bit responsible for current performance. I mean I was leading all the development from 2022 in the car, than even after he left, a team cannot create an upgrade package in such short time. Some ideas of the upgrade must already been on the table, while Key was still there.

I don't believe James Key has any significant part, if any, for the current form of the team. At the start of the season, Stella was very clear that the last thing thing signed off by the previous structure (Key) was the Baku upgrade, which was basically a new floor that would open up a new avenue of performance upgrades and concept. If you remember, AMR's resurgence actually started 2nd half of 2022, Dan Fallows joined in April of same year.
Besides, Key had admitted that the various philosophies seen on the grid at the start of the ground effect era were also considered by the team, but they ended up going the conservative route. Obviously, that would have been his decision. They later saw those concepts were the right way to go, but were already far behind. So they probably had a good idea how they worked and the only factors now were time and budget. These ideas that were turned down were most likely by Prodromou and his aero team, which would make sense as to why Stella turned to him to lead the charge on the fix.

[f1rules]

agree, what also strikes me, is the things thats been said in the many interviews since his departure, by outlining/underlining how it is now, they also very much highlighted how it was before, with and old school TD at the top of the food chain, taking on to much responsability, micro managing and worst, in some cases sidelining people(Prodromou) instead of handing out and encouraring individuals/tech groups to take responsability and listening to them. And on top of that, being to conservative in his decissions.
Its landos comments during the last 3 years, his growing annoynce that in build car flaws was not dealt with etc etc. All in all this paints an extremely bad picture of Key in my opinion.

[Ground Effect]

agree, what also strikes me, is the things thats been said in the many interviews since his departure, by outlining/underlining how it is now, they also very much highlight how it was before, with and old school TD at the top of the food chain, taking on to much responsability, micro managing and worst case side lining(Prodromou) instead of handing out and encouraring individuals/tech groups to take responsability and listening to them, and on top of that, being to conservative in his decissions.
Its landos comments during the last 3 years, his growing annoynce that in build car flaws was not dealt with etc etc. All in all this paints an extremely bad picture of Key in my opinion

Exactly! Unfortunately, I'm understanding all these in hindsight. I've followed Key for quite a while, I remember him ascending to a TD at a pretty young age, can't remember which team. I guess he got stuck in that mentality of overall boss of a small team with small staff and resources, where he had to be the main man on paper and operations. Like you pointed out in your earlier post, he deserves credit for the mechanical aspects of the car, he's a very good engineer, and I've read that it's no secret in the paddock how good an engineer he is. But I also remember reading an interview of his while at Toro Rosso, where he was been praised, he pointed out that he is not an aerodynamicist and couldn't design a front wing! But from all indications he wasn't listening to Prod and Co. After reading Zak's comments, it's not outrageous to think that if he worked more as a team and trusted his people, the MCL36 could have been a front runner straight out the box.

[f1rules]

Agree, i think youre spot on, also about the small team mentality, makes perfect sense, and if youre used to this type of setup, but also his abilities as an engineer, i have no doubt

agree, what also strikes me, is the things thats been said in the many interviews since his departure, by outlining/underlining how it is now, they also very much highlight how it was before, with and old school TD at the top of the food chain, taking on to much responsability, micro managing and worst case side lining(Prodromou) instead of handing out and encouraring individuals/tech groups to take responsability and listening to them, and on top of that, being to conservative in his decissions.
Its landos comments during the last 3 years, his growing annoynce that in build car flaws was not dealt with etc etc. All in all this paints an extremely bad picture of Key in my opinion

Exactly! Unfortunately, I'm understanding all these in hindsight. I've followed Key for quite a while, I remember him ascending to a TD at a pretty young age, can't remember which team. I guess he got stuck in that mentality of overall boss of a small team with small staff and resources, where he had to be the main man on paper and operations. Like you pointed out in your earlier post, he deserves credit for the mechanical aspects of the car, he's a very good engineer, and I've read that it's no secret in the paddock how good an engineer he is. But I also remember reading an interview of his while at Toro Rosso, where he was been praised, he pointed out that he is not an aerodynamicist and couldn't design a front wing! But from all indications he wasn't listening to Prod and Co. After reading Zak's comments, it's not outrageous to think that if he worked more as a team and trusted his people, the MCL36 could have been a front runner straight out the box.

[Farnborough]

I've no opinion to offer regarding character and management abilities within the team.

But, this chassis in it's mechanical layout seemed good right frommthe start, and closest in concept to the RB from the off. It didn't appear to have the overall performance its suspension layout suggested to be possible in my mind, obviously now corrected with what we can see in aero on these developments that have brought such pace to the whole performance.

Then that is management of a WHOLE team to bring these elements to the fore. Understanding where the various strengths lay, and how to bring those to prominence is fundamental to overall success.

Quite what has gone on with personal positions within the team we're not privi to. But the improvement is clear for all to see. Sometimes there's a "nearly" fit in personell, with shifts needed to capitalise on what is there, that's for a good manager to recognise and place to maximise the affect those ideas are focused on.

Probably wrong to demonise individual traits on a personal level, but acknowledge for whatever reason that it didn't quite fit together. That both the subtle and the dramatic influence these differences can make.

One thing for sure, judgement in such a unremitting performance demonstration as this, F1, is easy for people to make, but very difficult to quantify exactly the parts that are holding something back. It's a complex balance with only a time base to illustrate success or not.