McLaren is taking an important step in keeping the current successful team together in the long term by extending Peter Prodromou’s contract
The McLaren team, the reigning Formula 1 Constructors’ World Champion, extended the contract with one of its most important employees and officially announced this on Tuesday. This is Peter Prodromou, who has worked for McLaren continuously since 2014 and has been Technical Director for Aerodynamics since March 2023.
“It is a great honor for me to confirm the extension of Peter’s contract for several years,” says McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, without defining the agreed contract term exactly. ”The cultural, organizational and technical leadership that Peter has brought is invaluable.”
Prodromou is “one of the central architects of our team’s leap in performance – both on and off the racetrack – which ultimately led to the team’s ninth Constructors’ Championship in 2024. The journey we have taken together as a team would not have been possible without Peter.”
Prodromou: Started his career in Formula 1 at McLaren
Prodromou is one of McLaren’s longest-serving employees. He first joined the team’s design office in 1991 and rose to the position of head aerodynamicist before moving to Red Bull in 2006, where he accompanied the successful Vettel era with world championships from 2010 to 2013.
He returned to McLaren as Chief Engineer in 2014, and his role was further expanded in 2023 under the leadership of new team principal Andrea Stella. Stella promoted Prodromou to Technical Director of Aerodynamics – as part of a three-pronged leadership structure with Chief Technical Officer Neil Houldey (Technical Director Engineering) and Rob Marshall (Chief Designer).
Stella felt at the time that Prodromou’s talents had not been fully realized under the previous technical leadership: “In the area of aerodynamics, we wanted to have a technical director who would run the department in its entirety, with full responsibility for the position,” Stella explained in 2023 when the new structure was announced.
“We also wanted to finally release a very strong resource that we had internally but was underutilized for certain reasons: Peter Prodromou, one of the most knowledgeable aerodynamics experts in Formula One.”
“This was not working as efficiently as it should have been, and that’s what we wanted to change. At the same time, this model fits perfectly, as it gives aerodynamics a clear management structure and a clear strategic direction for the concepts we develop and want to implement in the car.”
Stella’s conversion led to rapid success. With the 2023 Austrian update, McLaren achieved a turnaround that few experts would have thought the team capable of. And in 2024, after a difficult start to the season, the team even secured their first constructors’ title since 1998.
What Prodromou says about the contract extension
On the occasion of the contract extension, Prodromou says: “I am very grateful to Zak and Andrea for their continued trust in me as Technical Director for Aerodynamics, as well as to all my colleagues in the team, who have given me outstanding support on both a personal and professional level.
“It is an honor to be part of such a collaborative team and to contribute to this impressive upward trend. After last season’s success, I look forward to continuing to work towards our common goal of winning more world championships.”
For McLaren, the announcement is the next step in bringing continuity to the team that has just come together. The racing team had already extended the contracts of the two drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, as well as those of team principal Andrea Stella and other key personnel, in 2024.
