The McLaren team are currently in the process of a massive restructuring. It all kicked off with Eric Boullier being sacked as racing director. Now, Toro Rosso’s James Key is set to join McLaren as technical director. The main objective of this restructuring is to return the team to a competitive nature.

The 46-year old was formerly Toro Rosso’s technical director and will assume office in McLaren after a period of time. In a similar vein, engineering director Matt Morris has resigned from his post at McLaren.

Morris was part of a three-man technical leadership team. This team was set up by Boullier, but has been disbanded due to the team’s lacklustre performance this season.

Other notable changes include chief technical officer Tim Goss leaving in April. So far, head of aerodynamics Peter Prodromou is the only man who has retained his position.

Additions to the Woking squad include Andrea Stella as performance director. Meanwhile, former Indycar champion Gil de Ferran has been named sporting director.

McLaren have declined to comment but the deal is as good as done. The role of a technical director has not been in operation at the team for a while. This is further evidence that the team’s previous structure was obsolete.

The team believed that their 2017 chassis was one of the best and set a lofty target of competing with Red Bull. However, they got a reality check as they were consistently more than a second a lap slower than Red Bull. They were also the slowest of the three teams using Renault engines.

Meanwhile, Toro Rosso’s switch to Honda has left them in a similar competitive position this year to 2017.

Although Key has resigned from Toro Rosso, he will assume his duties with McLaren after negotiation between Red Bull and McLaren.

Last month, the British marquee turned down an approach from Red Bull motorsport director Helmut Marko for reserve driver Lando Norris. Marko was eyeing the 18-year-old as a potential replacement for Brendon Hartley at Toro Rosso.