McLaren explains Seidl role name tweak

McLaren chief Zak Brown says new team principal Andreas Seidl’s official role name was changed to provide clarity inside the Formula 1 squad but underlined “the buck stops with me”.

When McLaren officially announced ex-Porsche LMP1 team principal Seidl would be joining its F1 operations back in January, the German was named managing director who would start work in May after a period of gardening leave.

Since starting work at McLaren, Seidl has been given the official title of team principal which McLaren CEO Brown has moved to clarify.

“I thought it was a little vague at the time and with team principal everyone understands that is who is running the Formula 1 team,” Brown said. “So we made that modification when we got him in to just make sure things are loud and clear.”

Brown also confirmed his own roles and responsibilities won’t change with the arrival of the new McLaren team principal which means he’ll retain power in the team’s racing operations.

“Ultimately I’m the CEO of McLaren Racing, so everything and anything around racing, the buck stops with me,” he said. “But it’s a team effort. So ultimately I’ve got total accountability.

“Andreas has total responsibility for the Formula 1 team, so the buck stops with Andreas when it comes to Formula 1. And then underneath and reporting to Andreas is James Key.

“Then we’ve got the Indianapolis 500 that we’re doing, so we’ve got a separate team on that which ultimately Gil [de Ferran] is responsible for our Indy 500 programme, but again, the buck stops with me ultimately in making sure that McLaren Racing is competitive and is a healthy business.”

Seidl will report directly to Brown and is responsible for “all aspects of the team’s F1 racing programme” as part of the Woking-based squad’s management overhaul following the departure of former chief Eric Boullier last year.

Seidl previously worked in F1 with BMW motorsport between 2000 to 2006 before moving to BMW Sauber as head of track operations until 2009.