A profound change in the internal culture helped McLaren regain prominence in Formula 1. According to Randeep Singh, the team’s race director, eliminating the fear of making mistakes was key to creating the environment that led the team back to victories.
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The transformation gained momentum after Zak Brown took over as executive director in 2018, and especially with the promotion of Andrea Stella to team principal at the beginning of 2023. The partnership between the two marked a competitive recovery that culminated in winning both championships last season.
In an interview with Sky F1, Singh highlighted that the main change was leaving behind a culture where employees might fear the consequences of wrong decisions: “The main thing is that leadership changed with Andrea and Zak, and I think that simply gave everyone the autonomy to do their jobs,” he said.
The director explained that this environment is especially important in areas like strategy, where decisions are made under pressure and there is always the possibility of error: “There is no blame. You don’t keep thinking: ‘What will people think if I make a mistake?’ None of that exists here. You just keep trying to improve,” he added.
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For the director, even weekends where decisions or results don’t go as expected began to be treated as learning opportunities: “If there is a bad decision, obviously you try to analyze it, understand it, and improve. But seriously, there is no blame at all,” he concluded.
The change also allowed McLaren to take calculated risks without the fear of consequences paralyzing its employees. For Singh, replacing worry about mistakes with an environment of psychological safety helped create a structure capable of sustaining the team’s return to the top.
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