Eric Boullier has resigned from the post of racing director at McLaren and the Woking based team has come up with a new leadership setup in order to replace him.
Boullier’s growing frustration with organisational structure of McLaren has apparently led to his resignation. The ‘Matrix management’ concept at McLaren hasn’t really helped McLaren’s cause, as with no clarity about who the ‘boss’ is, decision making has been a little tough.
In the matrix management system, there is no clear hierarchy, something that leads to a lengthy decision making process.
Also, in this matrix management system, everyone is reporting to everyone and hence there is no one person to provide the required direction.
Boullier wasn’t provided with a free-hand to manage the ‘racing’ part of the team the way he wanted to. Frustration had started to creep in and when the water finally started playing with his head, Boullier decided to step down.
“I am very proud to have worked with such a brilliant team over the past four years, but I recognise now is the right time for me to step down,” Boullier said in his statement.
“I want to wish everyone at McLaren the best for the remainder of the season and for the future.” he added.
Joe Saward in his article for Motorsportweek.com has revealed the McLaren have scraped the idea of entering IndyCar in 2019 and will be focussing entirely on F1.
The apparent IndyCar discussion was more of a marketing stint, but that idea has now been discarded. This however raises serious concerns about Alonso’s future with McLaren.
“I am also hearing that the plans for an Indycar team for 2019 – which were not Boullier’s idea – have now been axed, which is good news as it would have taken away from the team’s focus on F1, which is essential if McLaren is to get out of its current mess. This was largely a marketing exercise but as the core business is F1 it is much more important to get that working before diverting energy and attention elsewhere.” Joe Saward said.
What does the future hold for McLaren and Alonso?
