Brown: Then came the brutal wake-up call

The team had high expectations for this season after ditching Honda and plugging in Renault PUs to the back of their cars. Australia wasn't bad for the team, both cars finished in the points with Fernando Alonso fifth and Stoffel Vandoorne ninth.

They were braced for a tough opening round and expected to get better as the season progressed. It did not take long for it to dawn on all that the MCL33 was a dud of a car produced by a crumbling colossus of a race team.

In a candid interview with Motorsport-Total, Brown explained, "We will continue to develop this car, but unfortunately we produced an extremely bad race car that does not respond to changes - an indication that it's not a good race car."

"Unfortunately, I don't expect the results to improve in the next few races, perhaps with a few track-specific updates, but I'm not expecting any miracles."

"Other teams have evolved faster than us. The truth is, the others have gotten better. We knew that tracks like Spa and Monza would be our low point and that has been confirmed, but we do not stop developing because we need to understand and solve our problems."

Brown believes that the team is where it is because of the changes in leadership in recent years, "Since - the year is arbitrary - 2010, 2011, 2012 - we had a constantly changing leadership with Ron out, Ron back in, Martin out, Martin back, Jost in, Jost out and all at the highest level."

In less than a decade Ron Dennis, Martin Whitmarsh, Jost Capito and Eric Boullier have come and gone.

Brown explained, "Whether it's a Formula 1 team or a water treatment company, no organization can be successful when there is no stability. There was a lack of clarity and leadership, right down to the racing team - there were race directors and managing directors. Jost and Eric, and a structure that just was not right."

The 'matrix management' style at Woking is now being dismantled so that accountability is restored, "There was no leadership, no one was able to spot the issues early."

"The problem was then compounded by our engine situation. It was not all the fault of [Honda], definitely not, but there were tons of problems and penalties and engine damage, and that makes it harder to seriously diagnose where we truly stand as a team, but sure there were certainly other factors as well. "

Last year, led by Brown and urged by Alonso, the team made the huge decision to ditch an exclusive and lucrative engine deal with Honda to become customers of Renault, figuring that if Red Bull could win races with the French manufacturer, then so could McLaren.

Brown explained, "So there we had an engine that Red Bull proved can win races, but then came the brutal wake-up call."

"The problems were structural, they were in communication. It was not an individual's fault, some people who departed were great and it was not their fault. The organization was not well run from the top because there was a lack of focus."

The American now has a five-year plan for McLaren to return to the top, whereby his team will return to traditional F1 team staffing structures with James Key joining as Technical Director next year.

Earlier this year McLaren staff were up-in-arms, while many ex-staff, including none other than John Barnard, are appalled by how their once mighty team has slid to the foot of the pecking order, many accusing management of being out of touch with reality.

Brown conceded, "Maybe we did not look too closely in the mirror. For example, Sauber and Williams - two teams with less resources than us - have always made fast pitstops which have nothing to do with the chassis or engine, we need to improve there too.

Many point to mechanic-turned-car-company-boss, Ron Dennis as the culprit for the demise of the organisation he started from humble beginnings, his end coming when management ousted him from the helm in a swift coup a year ago.

"The group became huge, Ron had so much to do: the road business, McLaren Applied Technologies, Formula One, and he did not have a particularly good relationship with the rest of the owners..." explained Brown.