He was the Technical Director. If Patrick Head was expected to keep checking up on him then I fail to see the relevance of the position. Look at his career, a couple of race wins (before McLaren) was the pinacle. How the heck did he get the Sporting Director role at McLaren? Pete
+1 They have always had too many layers of mgmnt. Too many Directors and Veeps. Other F1 teams have been more effective when the vision was guided by one or two leaders (ex. BRAWN, Sauber, Williams even before Newey). Things just get done quickly with fewer chiefs.
Probably others have said this, nothing is wrong with McLaren. Competition in F1 is wonderful. One week RB, the other McLaren. You should ask, what is wrong with Ferrari. The answer: When has Ferrari done well when a bunch of Italians ran the team???
Depends on your definition of who "ran" the team. If you take it as being that Enzo Ferrari "ran" the team during his lifetime then for F1 you can add: '56; '58; '61; '64; '75; '77 and '79 for drivers, and '61; '64; '75; '76; '77; '79; '82 and '83 for the Constructors. For Sportscars you can add: '53; '54; '56; '57; '58; '60; 61; '62; '63; '64; '65; '67 and '72
I believe RP was meaning when was the team truly Italian. The only time I can think of is 52 and 53. If we exclude the driver then lots more times for sure. But post Mauro Forghieri I think we went to non-Italian managers and designers? Pete