F1 News: Insider ‘astounded’ as McLaren allow star to make rival team switch

Zak Brown, McLaren, generic, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 insider ‘astounded’ as McLaren allow star to make rival team switch

What does this mean for the future of the papaya F1 team?

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 26 May 2026 14:58

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Confirmation that one of McLaren's key F1 players will be making the move to a rival team has left a prominent insider 'astounded' by the decision.

The papaya outfit overseen by CEO Zak Brown have suffered a disjointed start to the 2026 campaign and after last weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, have even completed less grand prix laps than Aston Martin in the new regulations cycle.

After a costly decision to start both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on intermediate tyres in Montreal, the reigning champion DNF'd after suffering a gearbox failure on lap 40.

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His Aussie team-mate did manage to cross the line, albeit in a lowly P11 after a clash with Alex Albon left him with a broken front wing and a 10-second penalty.

With back-to-back constructors' championships to their name, it seems McLaren are taking a little longer to find their groove following the chassis and power unit rules reset, but things could be about to get more complicated as they deal with life without chief operating officer, Piers Thynne.

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Who is Piers Thynne and what does Williams move mean for McLaren?

Thynne held the role of chief operating officer until January of this year and was hailed as being instrumental to the team's transformation from a mid-tier team to reigning champions.

From August however, it will be Williams who boast his talents, having swooped in to acquire Thynne's signature at a time where James Vowles is in desperate need of an operational overhaul that results in improved performances on track for his squad.

In the announcement confirming his move to the Grove-based squad, who also recently signed Mercedes veteran Dan Milner, Thynne's new position of chief optimisation and planning officer was described as requiring him to, 'transform manufacturing and operations at the team in pursuit of long-term success.'

The move marks a major win for Williams who have made no secret of their lofty goal of returning the iconic team to championship-winning ways, and Thynne's exit is one that F1 journalist and former team manager Peter Windsor is shocked was ever allowed to happen in the first place.

In a YouTube short titled, 'WHAT is going on at McLaren??' Windsor shared his shock at the news, noting how surprised he was that the Woking-based F1 squad had let such a pivotal part of their F1 operation to move to a rival team.

"Just wanted to express my astonishment on receiving the news that Piers Thynne has been let go by McLaren, I just can't believe that," said Windsor in the video's introduction.

"For me, Piers, who's basically run the factory and has coordinated all the parts of the team, parts being the operative word there, the making of parts, getting them out on time, sorting out all the bottlenecks that inevitably appear between the fab shop, the machine shop, the carbon shop.

"Everybody's got their own little axe to grind but you need one man who can coordinate all that and say no to engineers who want things in a hurry if it's going to accentuate the bottleneck, or yes, we'll see if we can do that if we modify this, we do that, get the system going in this direction, and nobody has done a better job than that, I think probably in the history of the sport than Piers Thynne, who was basically born to do that job.

"I'm just astounded that McLaren would have let him go, I think he's been a key pivotal part of their success in the last few years."

Windsor previously worked for Williams F1 in the sponsorship department alongside Thynne's father, Sheridan Thynne, noting how apt it was that Piers was moving to the team that his father had played such a central role in shaping.

He even suggested the role was perhaps a step down for the more than capable McLaren star, adding: "I would have thought he'd [Piers] be the sort of guy you'd have as team principal of a team like Williams. I think Piers, well capable of doing an excellent job right at the top of that company."

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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