Ekrem Sami leaves McLaren after 35 years

What will remain of Ron Dennis’s legacy at McLaren? While the company has a strong foundation, a true generational shift is currently underway. The latest announcement, the departure of Ekrem Sami, serves as a reminder.

Ekrem Sami is clearly a historical figure in Woking as he has been associated with Ron Dennis since the days of his Project Four Formula 2 team (the famous P4 in the name of McLaren chassis) over three decades ago. As the head of the marketing agency developed within the team itself, he announced that he would be pursuing new opportunities, certainly pushed towards the exit following his long-time associate. I am not ashamed to admit that it feels strange to announce that I am leaving McLaren, the company to which I have devoted almost my entire professional life. But it is the right time.

To demonstrate the historical significance Ekrem Sami had for the development of one of the largest F1 teams, one only needs to look at the tribute paid to him by Mansour Ojjeh, one of the team’s main shareholders: “The early days were stressful but exhilarating. When we started winning world championships in the mid-1980s with Niki, Alain, and Ayrton, it was obviously our superstar drivers and brilliant engineers who received the lion’s share of the credit. But, behind the scenes, Ekrem’s intelligent and thorough work was equally important. It was Ekrem who managed to attract sponsors that were highly coveted by our rivals. Consequently, we were able to finance our car development programs that allowed us to win.”

Faced with the success of its partnerships, McLaren has even gone so far as to develop its own marketing agency, which handles both commercial relations and press relations and digital communication for external companies. Ekrem Sami had taken the lead of this subsidiary.

His replacement has not yet been named, but McLaren has already announced that Ben Priest will become vice president in charge of the United States. The American marketing specialist previously worked alongside Zak Brown at the JMI agency. Further indication of a change of era in Woking…

With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr