McLaren's managing director Jonathan Neale says that selecting drivers for the team is not up to him alone and that it is a team decision.

Jonathan Neale: Driver line-up is a team decision. When it comes to choosing a driver line-up you first look at who is available. But then in reality everybody is available, under certain circumstances. The second issue is finding the right line-up for the team. Martin of course, as team principal, gets the choice on that. But Ron will have a view and the shareholders will have a view, as they are representing the brand for McLaren. And behind the scenes the decision will be supported by the analysis my team make. My team will look at performance, consistency, and attitude over a number of years. And then you can come to the conclusion that this person really has something. It helps that we have back-to-back world champions, but of course you always look at the grid to see how everybody rates. That is part of a continuous process. But yes, I am involved, Martin is involved and Ron is involved. My contribution is, of course, more technical. Once we have the drivers here it is my job to make sure that the system around the drivers works well. They have to be happy with their engineers, happy with the logistics and the support system behind them and their trainers. They have to be healthy and feel part of the team. That is one area where Martin had done a fantastic job. Coming in as team principal he has set a new style of working for the team - it’s much more open. This was also pushed by Vodafone. We are far more accessible and more human maybe.