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F1 Beyond The Grid

James Key: McLaren's tech mastermind

F1 Beyond The Grid

karenellenbevan

Leisure, Sports News, News, Sports, Automotive

4.75.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2022

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

McLaren technical director James Key is one of the youngest tech chiefs in Formula One. He’s very bright, he’s super-organised and he’s ultra-competitive, all attributes that he’s using to drive the team back to the top of the sport. In this episode, James opens up to Tom Clarkson about McLaren’s difficult start to the 2022 season, when their cars finished 14th and 15th in the Bahrain Grand Prix, and how the team pulled together in the days that followed to improve the MCL36. Only three races later Lando Norris finished third at Imola. James also gives a fascinating insight into what it’s like to work with McLaren drivers Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, and how they're adjusting to the new 2022-spec cars, and he hints at what we can expect from them as the season unfolds. We also hear about James'  journey to F1, the technological advances he's been a part of, the highs, the lows and most importantly: what the future holds for McLaren.

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Related episodes from the BTG archive:

Lando Norris 
Alain Prost
Mika Hakkinen


This episode is sponsored by: 

Formula 1 Eyewear: Check out their Red, Gold and Trackside Collections of eyewear with their at formulaeyewear.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Sharing intimate photos of her without her consent.

0:02.8

Unwanted touching, unwanted comments, unwanted moods.

0:06.4

Controlling what she can and can't wear.

0:08.4

Controlling who she can and can't see.

0:10.1

Threatening her.

0:11.3

Enough.

0:12.3

This is abuse.

0:13.8

If you think it's wrong, act on it.

0:16.3

Call it out. Show support.

0:17.8

Report it.

0:18.8

There are many ways you can safely tackle violence against women and girls.

0:23.1

Find out how at gov.uk slash enough.

0:26.8

If someone is in danger, call 999.

0:31.6

After a promising start during pre-season testing in Barcelona,

0:35.2

where, on the opening day, Lando Norris topped the time sheets.

0:39.1

No one could have predicted the challenges that McLaren would face

0:43.2

when the 2022 season got underway in Bahrain.

0:46.9

Not least, technical director James Key.

0:50.7

There's a perfect storm of situations where we were woefully underprepared.

0:53.9

We had a problem to fix extremely urgently in a matter of days.

0:57.2

It's a really horrible feeling when you're there.

0:59.2

There's nothing more uncomfortable than seeing on the pit wall

...

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