NEW FRONTIERS

Bahrain-Merida’s new boss is ready to go full gas again

- Vern Pitt

Rod Ellingworth​ has something no other WorldTour team boss has — and he knows it. The driveway approaching the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking takes you over a vast artificial pond — the water was previously used to cool the wind tunnel’s motors — the grandness of which screams, ‘this is not just another corporation’. Inside, the ambiance is a mix of seven-star hotel, medical laboratory and Bond-villain lair, with its secret doors, spotlessly clean corridors, uneven staircases designed to make you think, and corridors that double as showrooms packed with Formula 1 exotica from the company’s 56-year history. And that’s before you get to the subterranean levels stacked with boffins in white coats and manufacturing facilities that run 24/7.

It’s no accident that Ellingworth was set on bringing the whole team of just under 90 Bahrain-Merida riders and staff here for their first meeting under his leadership, just a week before CW meets him. The McLaren Technology Centreis figuratively a million miles from the Manchester velodrome where he started his management career, let alone the dreary rain-soaked car parks where much of a team’s day-to-day business is conducted, or even the nice hotels in sunny climes teams choose for their annual training camps. While Formula 1 alumni might be inured to McLaren’s charms, coming from the world of cycling, it’s a massive culture shock.

“There’s no other team who have a base and a centre like this and hundreds of people at hand,” he says. “You can feel that [racing] passion, somebody from outside of this firm coming in like myself in that first few months of like, wow, you know, it’s really exciting here. If we can just bring in a certain percentage of that into our sport, it’ll make a difference.”