McLaren launch: Q&A with Neale and Michael

Having spent some time first with 2012 Drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, and then McLaren Team Principle Martin Whitmarsh, David Croft then invites Jonathan Neale (Managing Director, McLaren Racing) and Sam Michael (Sporting Director) to discuss their thoughts on the new car, and the season ahead.

David Croft opens by discussing the fact that Jonathan has been working at the McLaren Technology Centre ever since the end of the 2011 season to make the launch happen.

JONATHAN NEALE opens: “It certainly feels that way listening to Lewis and Jenson talk about how their winters were, and I was looking at my colleagues here thinking that that feels very different to the winter we’ve just been through. And I think a short winter for us as well, for all Formula 1 teams. We lost a month in an extended season now where normally we’d finish work at the end of October and then start on the engineering programme; we suddenly find ourselves a month short, the same kind of complexity, the same pace to win, and a very short testing period. Testing time is precious, and Martin spoke there about what happens around sandbagging or grandstanding. It would be lovely to be in a situation where you have a second’s worth of advantage over everybody else and you would rein it back. But the reality of the situation is that we have so much to work to do in such a short period of time that our mind is on getting the job done and we’ll see what happens in Australia.”

The media is then subject to a bit of a sponsors pitch between David and Jonathan, before the content is guided back to Sam Michael, who joined the McLaren-Mercedes Team in November 2011 from a long stint with Williams F1 Team.

SAM MICHAEL comments: “I’m really proud to be working for McLaren even though I’ve not been here long. I think it is a big family, a lot of the people here they take a lot of care of relationships, obviously externally but also internally as well, and it makes quite a big difference when you’re operating in a high pressure environment, and it’s much more than what I expected it to be and it helps you perform. But one of the drivers used a buzz word and I thought; the synergy of this place is strength and depth, and it’s a word that’s used quite a lot, and I thought, when he said it, what does that actually mean to everyone who’s listening today? Having just started in this company I do have the benefit of being able to observe what that is. From an engineering point of view and the sporting side, and in terms of the racing team and the people here, the one thing that really strikes you when you come into this organisation is the academic level within the engineering group. It is phenomenal, and it’s not just — it’s not just the leaders, it’s not just the technical director and the engineering director, it’s all the people that work below them, and it is the biggest strength of this company.”

“One of the questions that came from the floor before to Martin was about staff leaving to other teams, and Martin is correct, there’s equally as many people have come into McLaren from those top teams in the last twelve months but it’s not advertised. But I think even more important than that, this strength and depth is not something that you buy off the shop floor, it’s not like if you’re missing a 7 poster rig or a CFD computer or a wind tunnel, you can get your cheque book out and buy it and catch up, it’s something that’s instilled in this company over many years by the leaders of this company, and you can’t invent it, it’s something that’s ingrained in the company. Even being here after three months I can see that already, and it’s really rewarding working around it and getting to know the system. I’m still literally on a curve like this. You don’t know a company within three months, I think it takes you a good year or so to — and I haven’t, although I did two races at the end of last year it was in a sort of observational capacity so I’m looking forward to Melbourne. Everything so far has been really positive, that’s what I think strength and depth here is.”

With that, the media floor is once again open to questions. Ian Parkes directs the first to Sam.

QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE: “Towards the end of your stint at Williams you looked like a man under considerable pressure in your role as technical director, as if everything was on your shoulders to try and get things right there. How much easier have you felt it coming into this role with, as you just explained, that strength and depth around you?”

SAM MICHAEL replies: “I think, just to say quickly, obviously Williams is a fantastic team with a lot of heritage and I wish them all the best for this year. I’m sure they will return to where they’re meant to be. I think, continuing what I was saying before, a lot of the people, the engineers here I knew from previous relationship as well, either within technical working groups or in the pit lane, so I had quite a good knowledge of who the people were, not working with them but what their personalities were like. So it has been really refreshing to work with them and it’s been really encouraging, I’ve really enjoyed it. I know the drivers a little bit as well, the two race drivers who we’ve got. Jenson obviously used to drive for Williams many years ago before I was there but I had a lot of dealings with him, and Lewis I’ve known as well through just contact in the pit lane. But no, it’s been really good.”

An Important question, I personally felt was needed for the McLaren fans around the world, we then asked from the audience.

QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE: “Just to expand on that, tell us what you’ve been doing for these three months, what are your duties, and daily, weekly what do you do here?”

SAM MICHAEL replies: “I work within the senior management group. My main focus within that group is track side, so sorting out the race team, and when I say sorting out, it’s already a very defined machine. But McLaren is all about making things better than what everyone else is, and not using existing standards as a benchmark but trying to create new ones. That can involve anything from car quality, operational reliability, the structure of the race team. I work very closely with the team manager and all the people that work for him. It’s early days and, as I said, I came in at the end of last year and a lot of, 90 per cent of the car was already designed but there’s a lot of things structurally around the race team in the way it operates that it can still have a big effect on. And there’s different aspects to the way we go racing, and I’ve had quite a good involvement for the start of the season.”

Having had an interesting insight into Sam’s role with McLaren, the audience turns to Managing Director of McLaren Racing; Jonathan Neale to once again discuss how the team feels about the team members who left McLaren over the winter period.

QUESTION FROM THE AUDIENCE: “Jonathan, I asked Martin a little while ago about staff losses and the effect they have. Closer to the work face, if you like, do you feel that more than he does maybe up in the management offices?”

JONATHAN NEALE replies: “I think to put that in perspective, most engineering organisations, and you could check with colleagues here, will have a turnover rate of somewhere between 10-12 per cent I think is industrial norm. Here for the last certainly ten years the turnover in engineering is around about 5 per cent, so it’s never good to lose key people, and there are some eye-watering salaries being paid by teams who would dearly love to have some talented people from here. So as Martin said, in one sense it’s of no surprise that people will come and have a look at our talented people. But we do have a good system of development of young engineers and diverse talent. There are in excess of 200 engineers, mathematicians and scientists here, 23 different nationalities. And just by the law of averages, even if my colleagues might help a few, then statistically we are going to lose 12 a year, and on that basis we’re going to find that that’s newsworthy for some people. As I say, the reciprocal part of that is of course it’s interesting to have new people come into your organisation who will benefit enormously from having the experience of Sam in here, as we have with some of the engineers we’ve taken from other teams. But there’s not a skills bleed or a concern at that level - I’m happy with it.”

DAVID CROFT: “Got a question from Dan Miles, Jonathan, who is watching on Vodafone’s intranet and asks: do you feel that the latest technical regulations give you enough opportunity to innovate for this season or are they just getting a bit too restrictive?”

JONATHAN NEALE replies: “No, I don’t think that they’re boxing us in in some way. I think if you take a 10-year view on regulations then, yes, as the technology gets better and as our simulation gets better the regulating bodies have chosen to box us into a tighter window.

If I compare with that the developments in technology and the talent and the innovation that’s alive inside the organisations, we don’t ever appear to be ideas-limited. And if you take any one of the cardinal performance elements of the car, be that engine power or down force, then you take a 20-year view, you see an almost linear improvement in performance punctuated by these regulation changes. So I think for my colleagues, and I’m sure Paddy and Tim will give you a view on that as well, the issue is not that we feel boxed in or constrained in any way. The challenge that we have on the rear of the car, given the change in the regulations, opens up a real opportunity for us to test ourselves against the competition again. It’s that that keeps us alive and running.”

David Croft then rounds off proceedings with Sam and Jonathan, giving way to the final question and answer session of the morning:

“Sam and Jonathan, thank you very much. You may now return to your seats. Ladies and gentlemen, Jonathan Neale and Sam Michael.”

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