McLaren employees incensed over chocolate bonuses

Martin Macdonald Friday 22 June 2018 11:35

Last week reports emerged of a staff revolt behind the scenes at McLaren with employees not happy with the direction of the team under the current management, and now an anonymous source has revealed that the staff receive incentives...in the form of Freddo chocolate bars!

McLaren have improved slightly since last season, but the power unit change from Honda to Renault was intended to have them competing for podium positions again.

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This has not happened, and rumours of discontent behind the scenes emerged when it was revealed staff members contacted former team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, to vent their frustrations at the current regime.

Now, in a bizarre twist to the story, an anonymous staff member spoke to the Daily Mail, and claimed that after working extremely long hours, employees are regularly rewarded with 25p Freddo bars.

"We have been working all hours of the day, sweating blood, and they give us 25p Freddo bars," the source said.

"The management hand them to the supervisors to divide them out to employees in their team. Strictly one each.

"The Freddos are handed out when a package is produced on a tight schedule. For example, we were given two weeks to produce the Spain upgrade package in May.

"We all worked 24/7 to meet the deadline. We got it done in time. So a week later a Freddo was handed out to all staff involved as "a bonus". Supervisors are embarrassed to hand them out.

"We also got a Freddo last year after building the car."

The source went on to say that the current atmosphere behind the scenes at McLaren is "toxic" and that the staff members have no respect for the upper management.

"They told us at the post-Canadian Grand Prix debrief that they knew what was wrong with the car but not how to fix it. They ask us when they are on six-figure salaries," said the employee.

"We call four of the management the “Untouchables”. There is Eric Boullier, racing director, Matt Morris, chief engineer, Simon Roberts, chief operating officer, and David Probyn, operations director. Some of them just walk about chatting. We have no respect for them.

"People are beginning to boycott the debriefs because they are a joke. The atmosphere is toxic. We would like to go on strike but people fear for their jobs."