New 'Harmonious' engineering set-up at McLaren

McLaren will begin the 2010 season with a restructured engineering team in a bid to maintain an open and, it is hoped, mutually-beneficial working relationship between Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.

Clearly mindful of how the relationship between Hamilton and Alonso disintegrated into suspicion and mistrust in 2007, The Guardian reports that McLaren have appointed Phil Prew, formerly Hamilton's engineer, to a new position from which he will 'oversee and co-ordinate Latham, who takes Prew's place with Hamilton, and Jakob Andreasen, who will work closely with Button. The emphasis is on transparency and the sharing of information.'

"Right from the start, we've divided it as evenly as possible," Prew told the newspaper. "For example, during testing, we alternated which driver started each test so that the driver who goes second gets better track conditions. At the last test in Barcelona, we actually alternated the drivers through the test because we knew that some of the upgrade components would be coming late, and also to minimise the effect of the wet weather.

"It's about transparency and making sure that the information we have on the car is actively shared and discussed. The engineering team is very close and discuss ideas among each other. Even if the drivers weren't actively taking part in the test, they were present for the debriefs. Obviously, the drivers bring different things and both have different emphases but there is quite a bit they can learn from each other. I'd like to think they feel better as a consequence.

"Typically, after getting out of his car, a driver will first do a debrief with his engineer, and that's quite a personal thing. But everyone will be in the same room. So you have the situation where one driver will say: 'My car is doing this - is yours?' That's the sort of exchange that will happen. Once that's been completed, all the information will be on the table for each engineering group to share. It's left to me to try and pull the pieces together and interweave them to provide the best benefit for both drivers and, of course, the team."

New 'Harmonious' engineering set-up at McLaren - Planet-F1 News from planet-f1.com