McLaren is in the process of solving a self-created workforce problem. Before the introduction of the budget cap, the team downsized its workforce, thinking it had to be done the way they did. Afterwards it appears that a gap has arisen and that is now being filled.
Andreas Seidl, team principal of the team from Woking, realizes that an error of judgment has been made. “I am very happy that we launched a major initiative two months ago,” the German tells The Race. ‘Especially when you look at all the vacancies that are available to significantly expand our technical department.’
Seidl explains that it took a lot of detailed work to find out how much money is needed for a broader workforce. Like other teams, McLaren has been looking for more efficient ways of working. “That’s probably the same challenge for any team that had to downsize with the introduction of the budget cap,” says Seidl. “Ultimately you had to determine the size and shape of the team to the best of your knowledge, and make sure you stay within the ceiling especially in these early years of the ceiling, which are challenging.”
McLaren is learning about budget cap with other F1 teams
McLaren succeeded, but people had to be fired for that. “That was painful,” Seidl admits. “Then I think it’s also normal once you have this starting point in place to look at how you as a team can continuously make sure you’re making changes by finding further efficiencies or synergies within the team to free up money.” to create better performance.’
McLaren CEO Zak Brown acknowledges that the team is still learning how to deal with the ceiling. ‘That’s all part of it. And I think we are all learning, just look at Red Bull Racing’s overshoot. I don’t think it was intentional. Our finance team has the challenge of getting as close as possible to the limit, but not exceeding it by more than 1 euro. But every dollar less is a dollar we could have spent on the race team. That is a difficult task.’
