Why the ‘very big’ Sanchez left McLaren F1 after three months

A former Ferrari concept car boss, Sanchez was originally hired by McLaren in March 2023, and eventually rejoined his former team in January after completing his garden leave.

Sanchez would be one of three technical directors to succeed James Key, responsible for the concept and performance of the car, while Rob Marshall was brought in from Red Bull to lead engineering and design, and long-time McLaren aerodynamicist Peter Prodromou the TD for aerodynamics. .

But last week it was announced that Sanchez and McLaren had already parted ways after just three months in the job.

Instead, McLaren announced a change in its technical structure, with Stella taking over from Sanchez in a performance-enhanced role on a temporary basis until a replacement can be found.

There have also been exchanges between Neil Houldey and Marshall, with Marshall now chief designer and Houldey technical director of engineering, a role he was originally supposed to hold before McLaren landed Marshall. Prodromou, meanwhile, remains in the position as director of aero technology.

Motorsport.com understands that once the long-awaited McLaren line-up was fully installed this winter, Sanchez found that his pay in Woking was not what he expected when he signed up more than a year ago.

It was this dissatisfaction with his level of superiority that led to a conversation between him and Stella and ultimately what Stella called the “amicable” conclusion of a breakup. Sanchez’s departure then led to further changes.

“We all agreed that the model itself is very valid, we are very happy to have three dimensions: aerodynamics, engineering and performance, this works very well,” explained Stella.

“But when you need to get the technical setup, you also need to make sure it plays to the players’ strengths.

“We had a conversation with David about this topic and we realized and acknowledged that his level of greatness, expertise, competence is potentially greater than the role he was playing at McLaren.”

McLaren agreed to release Sanchez early so he could look for opportunities elsewhere. So it makes sense that any garden vacation is kept to a minimum to help him take on the new role.

Explaining the call to release Sanchez quickly instead of waiting to see what the situation will be, Stella said: “Three months in the normal industry is not a long time, but in Formula 1 it is a long time.

“Waiting another three months could put you off some of the work on next year’s car or the work you need to do already on the 2026 car.

“And this is valid for David as well, to give him a good chance somewhere else to have bigger responsibilities, three months can make a difference.

“So, we thought that was the right time and we came to a friendly and amicable conclusion that it was the right thing to do. And I really wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

Stella stressed that McLaren’s technical organization is regularly reviewed as it integrates new recruits, which goes beyond the headline signings of Marshall and Sanchez.

The Italian felt Working was now in a better position after its latest round of changes.

“The news about David is part of the news. The main news that is important for McLaren is that we have an updated, technically improved set-up, which I think puts McLaren in a better position than we were before,” he added.

“The new hires don’t just include senior people, but we’ve actually added a lot of people in the technical area at McLaren, what we call internally extra horsepower.

“What we did in these first three months was to find the right combination between the technical journey that we started last year and this extra horse power.”