Jonathan Neale, the McLaren Group chief operating office and a member of McLaren for 20 years, will leave the company later this year.
He has not been involved in the day-to-day running of the race team since taking up his position with Group in 2016 and there is not expected therefore to be any impact upon the racing operations side.
A qualified physicist, he previously worked at British Aerospace alongside Martin Whitmarsh. The latter was managing director of McLaren when he recruited Neale to join as the team’s operations director in 2001, responsible for technical purchasing, planning and manufacturing.
Ron Dennis, Whitmarsh and Neale together steered the team through the post-Mika Hakkinen period of its history, culminating in the 2008 world title with Lewis Hamilton.
As the Dennis era drew to a close amid boardroom struggles in 2016, Neale moved to the COO position with Group McLaren which encompassed the McLaren Automotive and Applied Technology companies. The latter division was sold earlier this year.
