This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
A quick look at the early days for Zak at McLaren:
When I heard him say back in 2017/18 we aim to win in 2025 I though it was PR thing and to calm down the nerves of the fans, like it will takes us a lot of time to get back in the top 3... and now it happened. wow,.... what a vision what a dedication, well done Zak
Do we know what happened with Andreas Seidl by the way? He just kind of drifted away from the sport slowly until he completely disappeared. I don't really put much blame on Seidl for the 2022 and early 2023 hiatus, I honestly just think James Key is a mid tier TD. He had the same resources McLaren had available when developing their Austria-spec MCL60, yet he managed to build barely midfield cars 2 years straight. Especially the 2022 launch spec. Such an uninspired car for what McLaren was, even back then. The blandest looking car in the midfield, let alone compared to the top 3. The only saving grace being the somewhat intriguing rear suspension which to be fair we don't really know how good it was even for the time since things changed a lot with the new technical leadership.
But nevermind that, I am pretty sure Seidl was quite highly rated by Zak right? The only reason why Stella had to take over was because Seidl was offered a high-level role at Audi which he accepted. But so soon after that, he was just dropped by Audi, with them retaining James Key as a TD which honestly seems weird to me considering his track record. Was there any indication that McLaren also didn't like Seidl's work? Publicly at the time, it seemed like they were painting him as the one who was pushing for those infrastructure upgrades that McLaren is enjoying the advantage off right now.
Do we know what happened with Andreas Seidl by the way? He just kind of drifted away from the sport slowly until he completely disappeared. I don't really put much blame on Seidl for the 2022 and early 2023 hiatus, I honestly just think James Key is a mid tier TD. He had the same resources McLaren had available when developing their Austria-spec MCL60, yet he managed to build barely midfield cars 2 years straight. Especially the 2022 launch spec. Such an uninspired car for what McLaren was, even back then. The blandest looking car in the midfield, let alone compared to the top 3. The only saving grace being the somewhat intriguing rear suspension which to be fair we don't really know how good it was even for the time since things changed a lot with the new technical leadership.
But nevermind that, I am pretty sure Seidl was quite highly rated by Zak right? The only reason why Stella had to take over was because Seidl was offered a high-level role at Audi which he accepted. But so soon after that, he was just dropped by Audi, with them retaining James Key as a TD which honestly seems weird to me considering his track record. Was there any indication that McLaren also didn't like Seidl's work? Publicly at the time, it seemed like they were painting him as the one who was pushing for those infrastructure upgrades that McLaren is enjoying the advantage off right now.
IMO, apart from helping secure the needed investments into the simulator and wind tunnel etc., Andreas Seidl seemingly didn't do much. He failed to take steps when Key started sidelining the aero department and Peter Prodromou, and didn't act even after multiple failed updates. My honest opinion is that if he hadn't resigned to move to Audi, where he got fired, he would have been fired by McLaren also to make room for Stella.
