NEOM McLaren Formula E team boss Ian James has described Taylor Barnard as an ‘exciting young talent’ as the team looks to promote younger drivers.
Barnard stunned everyone at the opening round of Season 11 in São Paulo, utilising his Attack Modes perfectly amid two red flags to take third place, becoming the youngest-ever FE podium-finisher in its history.
He also impressed in Season 10, finishing three races out of three whilst reserving for the injured Sam Bird – now his full-time team-mate – including a double-points finish in the Berlin E-Prix weekend.
Speaking to Motorsport Week ahead of the second round in Mexico – in which Barnard eventually finished 14th after a time penalty denied him two points – James was full of praise for the Norwich youngster, who forewent a further season in Formula 2 to join-up with the papaya team on a full-time basis.
“He is incredibly mature for his age,” said James. “And we saw that in Sao Paolo, the chaos of that race. I think one of the reasons that we had the strong finishing positions that we did is that both Taylor and Sam kept a cool head and managed their own races brilliantly, and that was backed up by the team as well – nobody got into a flap.
“In the very few times he’s now been out in the car for us, he has taken the step forward each time, and that’s always brilliant to see.
“He’s one of the drivers, from a character perspective, that we have always tried to target for the team, and what I mean by that is it’s somebody that not only is a fast driver, but somebody that works with the team in order to develop the whole package and the car going forward, so I think there’s more to come from him.
“He’s also somebody that’s got both feet firmly on the ground, but at the same time is hugely hungry for more success.
“I think he’s an exciting young talent, and I’m very, very pleased to have him in the team.”
Promotion of youth part of McLaren ‘philosophy’
McLaren as a whole has always been a team to unearth fresh talent. Its Formula 1 operations have successfully done this over a number of years, with the promotion of Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris from its youth ranks, as well as poaching other young prospects, including Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen and, most recently, Oscar Piastri.
McLaren’s Formula E side is no different, demonstrated, not only by the singing of Barnard, but by announcing the hiring of 2022 British F4 champion Alex Dunne to the role of reserve driver.
The 19-year-old Irishman has been a member of McLaren’s Driver Development Programme for around nine months and will also compete in F2 with Rodin this year.
The team also signed-up Welsh talent Ella Lloyd to the programme at the end of last year, and giving her track time in the all-female FE test in Madrid.
“We’ve been, I think, very supportive of young talent coming through,” James said. “We’ve had a couple of occasions now where we’ve promoted our development drivers into the race seats, and for me, that’s the way to go.
“I think that Formula E, one of the challenges that it’s got, and it is changing now, but we’ve traditionally relied on some brilliant, brilliant drivers, but drivers who’ve been there for some time, and that’s sort of stifled the opportunity to bring in fresh new talent.
“I think McLaren [takes] a slightly different approach to that, a different philosophy, and with Taylor, certainly it’s paying off as it stands at the moment.
“That being said, it also doesn’t mean that we want a sort of flip-flop between our drive lineups. We’ve had maybe a number of changes over the past couple of years which have been necessary and I think the right decisions, but I’d like to get us into a position where we’ve got a good degree of stability going forward.”
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