The state of play in F1's technical silly season

McLaren's recent reshuffle of its technical team has left James Key out of work. This comes amid a series of recruitment drives around the 2023 F1 grid thanks to a settled ruleset and budget cap. Here's a look at where Key could land, and who else is in the hunt for fresh engineering talent

Jake Boxall-Legge Mar 28, 2023, 8:56 AM

Upd: Apr 21, 2023, 12:30 PM

It’ll be a few months before the Formula 1 driver market for next year truly begins. Thus, there’s plenty of time for the current cast of 20 drivers – and all the prospective younglings in Formula 2 – to set out their stalls for a space on the grid in 2024.

It seems, however, that the hypothetical market square in F1-ville is nonetheless occupied in these spring months after just two races. Within that, McLaren has already done its business with a restructuring of its technical department; David Sanchez will move to the team from Ferrari at the end of the year, as James Key has been let go following the team’s disappointing start to 2023. The engineer market is open for business, with no shortage of teams looking to find a bargain to turn their fortunes around.

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Author Jake Boxall-Legge

Jake Boxall-Legge Autosport’s Technical Editor. Having studied Automotive Engineering with Motorsport at the University of Hertfordshire, West Country-born Jake's original ambition was to design racing cars. During a year between studies in which he accidentally rekindled a love of writing, he took up a Master's in Motorsport Engineering at Oxford Brookes. Halfway through his master's year, he was offered a place on the Autosport Academy, conducting occasional freelance duties before becoming the press officer for Formula 2 and GP3 in 2018. Autosport offered him a return to the fold later that year to serve as its Technical Editor. His voice appears on a number of videos and podcasts, and can often be found writing about terrible Formula 1 cars in excruciating detail. In his spare time, Jake enjoys baking and blames his failure to make it past the Great British Bake-Off interviews on his tenuous grasp on choux pastry. His dream is to open a brunch cafe - and his willingness to make outrageous puns in inappropriate situations has earned him the contempt of his colleagues.