JANUARY 27, 2011

Lowe promoted to technical director at McLaren

Paddy Lowe, formerly McLaren's engineering director, has been promoted to the role of technical director in a team reshuffle.

Paddy Lowe, formerly McLaren's engineering director, has been promoted to the role of technical director in a team reshuffle.

Lowe will continue to represent the technical aspect of McLaren within FOTA and the FIA and his broader remit means that Tim Goss, chief engineer on MP4-25, assumes a larger role within the car development programme and is now McLaren's director of engineering. Neil Oatley, now in his 25th year at McLaren, continues in his role as director of design and development programmes.

"It's great for Neil and me to be joined by Tim as another director on the technical side," Lowe said. "With the three of us, we'll not only be able to more efficiently spread our workload, but, through Tim & me, we'll also share race attendance. It's very important to have senior technical management at the racetrack, because that's where you score the points, but, equally, if you spend all your time away then you risk overlooking some of the hard work that happens back at the factory."

Goss's role has broadened over the past 12 months. "I used to be jointly responsible for the direction of our cars with Pat Fry (now at Ferrari)," he explains. "Now, I've taken on both roles - but there's obviously been some shifting of responsibilities as, clearly, I can't do the work of two people. My role will be to co-ordinate a small team of project engineers who are responsible for the specification, design and development of our cars."