Brown: Seidl took the politics out of McLaren

In an interview with AS, Brown recalled that when he arrived at McLaren in the wake of the Ron Dennis era, "There were many chefs in the kitchen. Many things were happening in the company and among the shareholders.

"There was a lack of clarity in leadership, but now it all has been put on one person and Andreas has done an excellent job," insisted the American.

Indeed, from the misery of the Honda era, McLaren bounced back this year, beating Renault to fourth in the F1 constructors' World Championship.

Brown highlighted Seidl's achievements, "Obviously he didn't build the car, because that was done last year. But he has brought clarity and leadership to the organisation with a simpler structure involving James Key and Andrea Stella and a clear mandate for what each person should do.

"He took the politics out of the team because when a leadership position is missing things can become political. With that, better developments have come to the race car and many other things started to come together which is essential for any business. We needed to reverse our bad streak from the past," explained Brown.

However, the former marketing man acknowledged that McLaren's next step - catching up to the top three teams - will be even more difficult, "One of the things we have done recently is to recalibrate our expectations.

"We thought that as soon as we changed our power unit we would be back at the front, and clearly we weren't. But the first thing we had to do was make sure that we are not going backwards.

"We also know that the budget cap will have an impact and will play a role in this process. There is still time for us to get where we want to be," he added.

Meanwhile, McLaren has teamed up to take on the top level of cycling including the Tour de France.

Already entering a team in Indycar next year, the Woking based outfit has now agreed a 50-50 joint venture with Bahrain to launch the UCI cycling team Team Bahrain McLaren.

The team - to wear orange jerseys in 2020 featuring the names of F1 team sponsors Richard Mille and CNBC, and with top British rider Mark Cavendish in the saddle - was formerly known as Bahrain Merida.

"McLaren's racing pedigree is founded on decades of performance in the most technologically advanced sport in the world. We now look forward to applying this knowledge to elite cycling," said new joint managing director John Allert.