Ron Dennis steps down as Chairman of the McLaren Group
After 35 years at the helm of the legendary McLaren Formula 1 team, Ron Dennis has been forced by the British group's shareholders to tender his resignation as Chairman and CEO.
It’s the end of an era for the small world of Formula 1. In a statement released by Ron Dennis, aged 69, he announces his departure from the management of the McLaren Technology Group and expresses his disappointment. He also takes the opportunity to denounce the reasons for his dismissal, mentioned by the McLaren board, as being completely fallacious according to him.
In his statement, the English boss challenges the decision of the shareholders who, according to him, validate the strong warnings from the rest of the team about the potential consequences of their actions on the company.
For some time now, rumors regarding the departure of the iconic British team director have been circulating in the paddock, but events have accelerated in recent days: Ron Dennis had surrounded himself with potential Chinese investors for McLaren. Dennis hoped to sway the group’s new shareholding in his favor to remain at the helm of a company where key figures were increasingly hostile towards him. Currently, Dennis still holds 25% of the capital, compared to 50% for Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund and 25% for Franco-Saudi businessman Mansour Ojjeh. While this guarantees him a seat on the board of directors, it does not allow him to remain at the top of the organizational structure for much longer.
The English boss discusses “life after McLaren”
Dennis embodied this McLaren team for many years, to the point that today he cannot envision his future within the new structure: « Ultimately, it became clear to me, through these methods, that neither TAG nor Mumtalakat (which are Ojjeh’s holding and the Bahraini sovereign fund respectively) share my vision for McLaren and its true growth potential. »
Furthermore, Dennis talks about the launch of an enigmatic technological investment fund that would soon become one of his main concerns once his contractual obligations with McLaren come to an end. New business opportunities that will eventually signal the end of the collaboration between the entity of which he remains one of the founders and himself.
Dennis among the glorious figures of Formula 1
If his position within McLaren was criticized by other shareholders when the team was going through a very lean period in terms of sporting results, it cannot overshadow the three decades of success for Dennis alongside some of the most legendary drivers in F1 history and in legendary battles: in the 1980s, McLaren won no fewer than six Constructors’ World Championships and seven Drivers’ titles with Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, and Ayrton Senna. Everyone remembers the 1984 world title won by the Austrian over the Frenchman by half a point and, of course, the summit contest between Prost and the Brazilian legend “Magic Senna”… So many egos for Dennis to channel when he was at the helm of the team on the circuits.
An experience that followed the phlegmatic English team boss until 2007 with the duo of drivers Fernando Alonso, then a two-time world champion with Renault, and the young prodigy of the time Lewis Hamilton. A lively coexistence that did not last the year.
It was in 2009 that Ron Dennis finally handed over the reins of the Woking team to Martin Whitmarsh to gradually step back from the Formula 1 circuits before returning in 2014 in a more political role within McLaren.
