McLaren hire Toro Rosso's Key as technical director
McLaren has confirmed the acquisition of James Key as technical director from Toro Rosso, with Matt Morris leaving the team as part of its ongoing technical restructuring.
Key will join after six years at Toro Rosso, having joined the Red Bull junior team following two years as technical director at Sauber. The 46-year-old is effectively a replacement for Tim Goss, who left his role as chief technical officer at McLaren in April following a poor start to the season.
When announcing Eric Boullier’s departure as racing director earlier this month, McLaren made further changes to its technical structure and Key is the latest move to strengthen that department.
A start date has yet to be agreed, which suggests there could be a link between Key’s gardening leave and a potential drive for Lando Norris at Toro Rosso. Engineers often have extensive gardening leave periods built into their contracts, but those can be greatly reduced if their former team is compensated in some way.
The McLaren reserve driver was linked with a mid-season move last month, but McLaren rejected the idea at the time. While a switch this season cannot be ruled out, it is more likely that Norris would step up to F1 next year, with Carlos Sainz being linked with a move to Woking if Stoffel Vandoorne is replaced.
McLaren has also announced that engineering director Morris will leave after five years with the team. While the two moves are separate, Morris -- who has resigned from his role -- does not yet have a confirmed departure date.
The technical restructuring is taking place with McLaren seventh in the constructors’ championship, 32 points adrift of Renault in fourth but 28 points clear of eighth-placed Toro Rosso.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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