The atmosphere at McLaren's Woking factory appears to be getting worse with hard-working staff members rumored to be on the verge of a revolt.
Employees have allegedly taken aim at McLaren's senior management, calling into question the executives' competence in light of McLaren's inability to improve its results.
But working conditions are also at the forefront of several disgruntled employees grievances, with one member of the personnel denouncing a "toxic" environment where hard work and extra long shifts rewarded with Freddo bars!
"We have been working all hours of the day, sweating blood, and they give us 25p Freddo bars," the McLaren employee told a British tabloid, speaking under condition of anonymity.
"The management hand them to the supervisors to divide them out to employees in their team. Strictly one each.
"The Freddos are handed out when a package is produced on a tight schedule. For example, we were given two weeks to produce the Spain upgrade package in May.
"We all worked 24/7 to meet the deadline. We got it done in time. So a week later a Freddo was handed out to all staff involved as "a bonus". Supervisors are embarrassed to hand them out.
"We also got a Freddo last year after building the car."
The story reads like a silly and fabricated April Fool's prank, but according to the despondent employee, the miserable Freddo bonus scheme is only the tip of the iceberg.
The anonymous employee contends that McLaren's engineering staff is clueless about how to fix the MCL33's problems, the car's well-known weakness centered around its aerodynamics.
"They told us at the post-Canadian Grand Prix debrief that they knew what was wrong with the car but not how to fix it. They ask us when they are on six-figure salaries," said the employee.
"We call four of the management the “Untouchables”. There is Eric Boullier, racing director, Matt Morris, chief engineer, Simon Roberts, chief operating officer, and David Probyn, operations director. Some of them just walk about chatting. We have no respect for them.
"People are beginning to boycott the debriefs because they are a joke. The atmosphere is toxic. We would like to go on strike but people fear for their jobs."
Obviously, the anonymous assertions of one man cannot be taken at face value, but where there's smoke, there's usually fire.
McLaren has reacted to the claims however.
"McLaren has one of the most loyal and long-serving staff in the entire motorsport industry," the team told Sportsmail.
"Our team leaders are free to reward their staff with spontaneous, thoughtful and fun gifts whenever they feel that a job or task is worthy of extra recognition and reward.
"This was just such an example, alongside so many others that happen on a daily basis."
In other words, let them eat cake...
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