McLaren extends F1 contract with aero chief Prodromou

The McLaren Formula 1 team has extended the contract of its aerodynamics chief Peter Prodromou, who played a key part in its 2024 constructors’ title.

The team announced on Tuesday that Prodromou would continue in his capacity of aerodynamics technical director on a long-term deal as it intends to keep together the squad that returned it to the front of F1 over the past two seasons.

“It is my great privilege to confirm the extension of Peter’s contract on a multi-year deal,” said team principal Andrea Stella. “The cultural, organisational and technical leadership Peter has brought has been invaluable, and he has been a key architect of the team’s performance turnaround, on and off the track, securing the team’s ninth constructors’ championship in 2024.

“The journey we have been on together as a team, we could not have done without Peter, and we look forward to continuing our quest of fighting for further World Championships together.”

Prodromou added: “I am delighted to continue my role as Technical Director, Aerodynamics at McLaren F1 Team. It is an honour to be part of such a collaborative team and contributing to this strong upwards trajectory.

“Following last season’s success, I look forward to contributing further to our shared ambition of securing more world championships. I’m grateful to Zak and Andrea for their continued confidence in me as a Technical Director, Aerodynamics and also to all my colleagues in the team who have provided the highest class of support to me at a personal and professional level.”

Prodromou is one of McLaren’s longest-serving members, having first joined its design office in 1991. He rose to the ranks to become chief aerodynamicist before leaving for Red Bull in 2006, but then returned to McLaren in 2014 as chief engineer.

His role at McLaren expanded under the leadership of incoming team boss Stella in 2023, with Stella promoting Prodromou to aerodynamics technical director as part of a three-pronged leadership structure, which also heavily leans on engineering chief Neil Houldey and chief designer Rob Marshall.

At the time Stella felt that under the previous technical structure Prodromou’s talents had not been fully exploited.

“In aerodynamics, we wanted to have a technical director that leads aerodynamics. Full empowerment to this technical director,” Stella said when he announced his new structure in 2023. “And we wanted to unleash a very strong resource that we had internally, and that, for some reasons was under-utilised, like Peter Prodromou, one of the most competent experts in F1 in relation to aerodynamics.

“This wasn’t happening as efficiently as it should have happened, so this is something we wanted to fix. And it perfectly fits the model at the same time by giving aerodynamics clear leadership, clear guidance as to the concepts that we wanted to develop and lead to the car.”