So it’s been a challenge, but I’m really happy with how we managed to hit it in a short period of time. Staffing has been a top priority at Arrow McLaren for Ward, who says he initially “was naïve to how hard it is to recruit for talent right now in this sport. Racing director Gavin Ward, who oversees day-to-day operations as the direct report to McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, started last July after working as head engineer for Josef Newgarden at Team Penske. Some of the new faces are at the very top. Over the past year, the team has received tens of thousands of resumes – sometimes hundreds specifically for an open position – while transforming its staff. The head count was up to 94 by mid-February and is expected to be at least 100 by the end of March. Performance enginer Kate Gundlach is part of Arrow McLaren’s staff that is nearly 20 percent women (James Black/Penske Entertainment).Īnd it’s especially true during a season with the kind of expansion that Arrow McLaren has undertaken for the 2023 season.Īdding 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi as a teammate to Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist, the team will be running three full-time cars for the first time ( and a fourth Indy 500 entry for Tony Kanaan).Īfter starting last season with 61 employees, the Arrow McLaren payroll mushroomed in the offseason. And I found her in a magazine and just reached out to her.”Īs in any industry, networking and recruiting are cornerstones to motorsports, where big-league success is predicated as much on driver and car as the countless people who support the stars and build the machines behind the scenes for any Ind圜ar, NASCAR or Formula One team. “She’s a complete unicorn and super hard worker. “Gracie is a rock star and can do anything,” Gundlach said. Petersburg, Gundlach and Hackenberg (a damper specialist who also works on pit stops) will begin their third year together in the engineering department of Arrow McLaren as the team enters its most critical season yet in trying to become a perennial powerhouse championship contender.
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Gundlach forwarded Hackenberg’s contact information to an Arrow McLaren hiring manager, and the match turned out perfect. “I messaged her on Instagram, ‘Hey, I think you’re super cool, you’re really killing it, and if you ever want to work in Ind圜ar, let me know,’ ” Gundlach told NBC Sports. Kate Gundlach, a performance engineer at Arrow McLaren, was leafing through a sports car magazine a couple years ago when she stumbled upon a story about Grace Hackenberg, an Oregon-based racing engineer. The recruitment pitch to join the Arrow McLaren Ind圜ar team started with the 21 st century social media version of a corporate headhunter’s cold call.
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