Whether you want to call McLaren a fallen giant or a sleeping giant, it has to be said that chief executive Zak Brown and new team principal Andrea Stella are working tirelessly to wake it up.

After noticing his team was lagging on development through 2022, Brown empowered Stella to propose a new technical structure, replacing technical director James Key and empowering the trio of Neil Houldey, Peter Prodromou and Ferrari returnee David Sanchez to helm the key. A battle station for engineering and design, aerodynamics and automotive concepts.

Their respective technical teams have also been strengthened, with Motorsport.com reporting earlier that deals had been struck for 15 engineers, some of whom have joined, while some who were working in the gardens have left like Sanchez.

Those on board include longtime aviation expert Mariano Alperin, who joined from Aston Martin, and more staff from top-flight Ferrari and Red Bull teams.

While McLaren has been tight-lipped about the identities of its reinforcements, it’s clear that it’s recruiting aggressively and appears to have succeeded in persuading top talent to join.

“In our interviews, for the people we interviewed, McLaren always presented a very exciting prospect and everyone understood our ambitions,” he said when asked by Autosport in Australia to attract Competitors are challenged by talent, Stella said.

“Everyone understands that if we turn McLaren around, we’re making history and everyone wants to be a part of it, so I wouldn’t say attracting talent is complicated.

“The impact of model changes has only really impacted the recruitment process recently. Let me add that the way we approach recruitment overall is part of our performance-driven organizational philosophy.

“Even the way you recruit people looks at performance, which means from that perspective we are aggressive and that’s what it takes to compete in Formula 1.”

McLaren CEO Zac Brown at the team principals press conference

Photography: FIA Pool

A major asset in McLaren’s recruitment campaign is new investment behind the scenes, allowing it to finally upgrade its aging facilities after delays caused by the pandemic.

During the Ron Dennis era, Woking’s McLaren Technology Center was the envy of the F1 world, a futuristic shrine to the latest equipment and technology.

But if you wait long enough, even the future may become the past.

Many of MTC’s crown jewels are outdated, with its wind tunnel outdated and reliant on a sub-optimal deal of trucking parts to Toyota’s wind tunnel in Cologne.

But the new wind tunnel is finally complete and will start production in June after necessary calibration work. Its new simulator and manufacturing arm will launch later this year.

Brown doesn’t want McLaren’s lack of infrastructure to be a tiresome excuse. After all, the desire to unlock more performance from the team’s existing resources was what drove its technical reorganization.

But it’s clear that the new facility puts McLaren in a better position to compete. Not only on the track, but also in the job market. McLaren seems like a project people want to be a part of. A tantalizing engineering challenge.

“No one doubts the commitment of our shareholders or the commitment of our board to return to the front,” Brown said.

“Finally, a lot of the infrastructure that we’ve been talking about for years, our wind tunnel is coming online. A new manufacturing unit with all the state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment. You can walk in and you can see the building and a lot of other foundations facility.

“But we were so far behind on that, we invested in it, and then during COVID we stalled in advancing some of that.

“We have all the resources we need. We’re very aggressive. We’ve got a lot of people joining us and a lot of people joining us.

“Now that Andrea has the model in place, we haven’t finished turbocharging the model.

“We’re just getting started.”