After an abject 2013, without a podium finish, the situation reached a low
ebb. “The mood was down,” says Éric Boullier, the team’s racing director,
nearly five months into the job. “People were in a mood where they were
waiting for a leader to show up.
“The atmosphere was a little bit in standby. People were working, but it was a
bit like, ‘Where do we go? Right? Left? Up?’ They were a little bit waiting
to say, ‘Please send us somebody to lead us’.
“They dominated and won so many races over the years, and had this incredible
capacity to recover, maybe a little bit too much focus on we can do it and
we know what we are doing. I think sometimes you need to look outward a
little bit. Self-confidence which was a little bit too much, misplaced if
you want.”
One glaring piece of that ‘self-confidence’ was Ron Dennis’s emphatic
declaration before this season that McLaren would win races in 2014. The
source of this rallying cry? “I think he was told there would be an
opportunity and then he just repeated what he was told. It was a little bit
optimistic.”
Boullier, the Frenchman who won respect and admirers up and down the paddock
for his work on a shoestring budget at Lotus, including at the very highest
levels, is the man tasked with arresting that decline.
The 40-year-old former student of aerospace and spacecraft engineering,
wearing the appropriate spectacles, walked into a maelstrom. Dennis had
executed a successful shareholder-backed coup to return to the helm. Team
principal Martin Whitmarsh, Dennis’s trusted sidekick for more than two
decades, lost control.
With his friend Whitmarsh’s future unresolved – the parties have still not
agreed a pay-off – it was an immensely nerve-racking first day for Boullier
at the gleaming spires of McLaren headquarters in Woking. “I was there
thinking, ‘I have no idea how the welcome will be’,” he admits from his
swish office in McLaren’s motorhome, one of many reminders of the team’s
prestige.
“It’s a bit of a strange feeling because also I was very close to Martin for
other reasons, and I have a lot of respect for him. It was a bit strange to
come and not to see Martin there. In the end they were just very honest,
very direct, straightforward, and it was a warm welcome from everybody.”
While he reveals regular communication with Whitmarsh – the pair shared
leadership roles on the now defunct teams’ association, one of many
“distractions” now expunged – Boullier is emphatically part of a new regime.
Despite Dennis’s occasional forays onto the pit wall, something he had
originally promised to avoid, Boullier has been given carte blanche to
reform and reorganise the team to make them the lean race-winning machine of
old.
“I’m not the kind of guy who is going to ask every day, ‘Can I do this, can I
do that?” Boullier says. “No. I’m responsible, I’m accountable. He [Dennis]
brought me in because he thought I can do something good. I need to be free
to do it, and that’s it.”
The deliberately inscrutable Frenchman is tight-lipped on the details. “There
were some dominating parts, which let’s say were too influential, which were
squeezing some other parts. If you have 250 engineers, I would use 250
brains rather than 10.”
McLaren watchers suggest the “dominating” part was some of the old school
technical types, led by technical director Tim Goss. A blending with a newer
camp under Matt Morris – poached from Sauber last year – has been part of
Boullier’s agenda. Young Cambridge and Harvard types have also been given
more of a chance to shine.
With Honda supplying engines from next year, there is hope of brighter times
on the horizon, as McLaren try to rekindle their dominant years with the
Japanese manufacturer in the late 1980s.
“It’s not only the answer,” according to Boullier. “Everything has to be
perfect. We need to put all the stars aligned, which means the best drivers,
best teams, best expertise, best engineering, everything the best. Then it’s
going to work.”
It is interesting that Boullier should mention drivers. While he has been
effusive in his praise of Jenson
Button, and suggests it is likely the 34-year-old will be at the
team next year, he admits discussions have taken place with other drivers,
believed to be Fernando Alonso, Hamilton and Sebastian
Vettel.
“It’s my job to be in touch with the drivers. Let’s say some drivers on the
grid, yes, I am talking to them. As of today we just seek their position,
because once again, we have to be the right package.
“That means we are talking to understand when they could join us. Again, you
don’t want to have Fernando Alonso if your car is two seconds off the pace.
It’s a little bit too expensive and complicated to manage. But we want the
best pair of drivers for us because this is part of the success. We will do
it when we will be ready and when they will be ready to come.”
But all this still does not leave him in particularly cheery mood for this
weekend’s British Grand Prix. Is a non-podium points finish really the best
McLaren can hope for?
“Unfortunately, I’m sorry,” an apologetic Boullier confirms. “I am sorry
because even for myself, for our sponsors, for our fans, It’s frustrating to
be here and sent into the middle and say we will be back for sure, I know,
100 per cent.
“I have to say it worries me a little bit to go there and say we are not at
the level, but please forgive us and be patient, because we will be back for
sure.”
His prognosis is a reminder of the mountain McLaren have to climb. Despite all
the change going on behind the scenes, as well as machinations on the driver
market, the orange T-shirts will be for fans only this Sunday.
There could be plenty more pain to come before we see Boullier pull one on in
victory himself.