Dennis steps down from McLaren

2016 F1 season

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Ron Dennis has confirmed he is standing down as chairman and chief executive of McLaren Technology Group, which includes its F1 team.

In a statement issued on Tuesday Dennis claimed he has been “required” to relinquish his position at the company. Dennis said he was “disappointed” not to have retained the backing of shareholders.

Ron Dennis’s three decades as McLaren team principal
Rumours had grown about Dennis’s future over the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend following reports of an approach to McLaren from a consortium of investors.

Dennis took over the team in late 1980 and steered it to a string of championship successes during his three decades as team principal.

He handed control over to Martin Whitmarsh at the beginning of 2009 while he turned his focus to McLaren’s growing road car business. But Dennis retook control of the F1 team five years later saying the company’s shareholders had “mandated me to write an exciting new chapter in the story of McLaren, beginning by improving our on-track and off-track performance”.

McLaren’s on-track fortunes took a dive in the first year of their new association with Honda in 2015. But the team has shown signs of progress this season.

Statement from Ron Dennis

Ron Dennis confirms that he has today been required to relinquish his duties as Chairman and Chief Executive of McLaren Technology Group (MTG), having led and grown the business and been its creative force for more than 35 years. This follows a decision by the majority shareholders to place him on gardening leave.

Dennis remains on the Boards of both MTG and McLaren Automotive Limited and a significant shareholder in both companies. He intends to honour his commitments to the group before launching a new technology investment fund later in 2017.

Dennis said: “I am disappointed that the representatives of TAG and Mumtalakat, the other main shareholders in McLaren, have forced through this decision to place me on gardening leave, despite the strong warnings from the rest of the management team about the potential consequences of their actions on the business. The grounds they have stated are entirely spurious; my management style is the same as it has always been and is one that has enabled McLaren to become an automotive and technology group that has won 20 Formula One world championships and grown into an £850 million a year business. Throughout that time I have worked closely with a series of talented colleagues to keep McLaren at the cutting edge of technology. to whom I will always be extremely grateful.”

“Ultimately it has become clear to me through this process that neither TAG nor Mumtalakat share my vision for McLaren and its true growth potential. But my first concern is to the business I have built and to its 3,500 employees. I will continue to use my significant shareholding in both companies and my seats on both boards to protect the interests and value of McLaren and help shape its future.”

“In addition I intend to launch a new technology investment fund once my contractual commitments with McLaren expire. This will capitalise on my expertise, my financial resources, together with external investment to pursue the many commercial opportunities l have been offered in recent years but have been unable to take up while being so committed to the existing business.”

Statement from McLaren

As of this afternoon Ron Dennis no longer holds the position of Chief Executive Officer of McLaren Technology Group (or its subsidiaries). However, he remains a shareholder and a director of McLaren Technology Group.

Over the past 35 years Ron’s contribution to the success of McLaren has been colossal. During his tenure the team won 17 World Championships and 158 Grands Prix, making him the most successful leader in Formula 1 history. Like the company’s founder, Bruce McLaren, Ron is and will always be one of the true greats of the sport.

McLaren Technology Group is now in the process of seeking a new Chief Executive Officer. Until such an appointment has been made, the company will be run on an interim basis by an Executive Committee comprising the Group’s majority shareholders, in close collaboration with the Board of Directors and the senior management team, all of whom remain utterly committed to the company, its partners, its employees and its fans, and share a passionate determination to build on our many strengths towards future prosperity.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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119 comments on “Dennis steps down from McLaren”

  1. A sad ending to a distinguished career however, let’s be honest, the success in the career ended some time ago. Whilst it may not have been a mistake to replace Whitmarsh it was a mistake to replace him with himself and he would have been better served acting as a shareholder rather than being directly involved in the running of the business.

    1. Well said. Whatever you think of Dennis and McLaren, he was so influential to F1 and McLaren. Its always disappointing to see great careers end like this.

    2. Well, they won with Lewis in 08. Which was a year out from the end of his last stint, and he’s been back for three, the Honda decision was a gamble but a risk needed to beat Mercedes.

      Now, unless they are going to end their partnership with Honda, which I doubt, I don’t see what he should have differently.

      So I don’t understand it.

    3. It looks to me that power did what it always does and it corrupted Ron. He tried to make a deal too far – one that would have significantly further enriched him – but the rest of the board didn’t agree and he lost the battle. It does seem to me that Ron was trying to feather his own already very salubrious nest. Maybe that’s wrong and it was just the last straw in a series of sub-par decisions or executions in the recent McLaren-Honda story. CEOs get the big bucks for taking the big decisions and as a result there’s little room for error. I guess we’ll have to wait for the next tell-all exposé to get Ron’s side of the story.

      1. Ron needs to publish a book. I am more than willing to empty my wallet for a book of his written entirely in Ronspeak.

        Anyway, I echo your and everybody else’s thoughts. Never been a Macca fan but boy was he important. At least the cars will continue to bear the MP4 (McLaren Project 4) denomination. Or so I hope.

        1. @carlitox Marlboro Project 4.

          Conincidentally Marlboro and McLaren start with the same letter.

      2. @mortyvicar
        care to elaborate on what you mean by

        He tried to make a deal too far – one that would have significantly further enriched him

        as i don’t recognise that at all
        Ron’s biggest mistake was leaving things to Whitmarsh. Whitmarsh threw away the 2007 championship, presided over spygate & almost threw away the 2008 championship. Merc seeing what Braun did in 2009 that McLaren couldn’t was the final straw and cemented the decision to go off and build their own team.

    4. Very sad news. Ron has made McLaren the amazing company it is today. While the Formula One team has undoubtedly underperformed in recent years, the automotive side of the business is producing cars to match or surpass anything out there from Maranello or Stuttgart and the Applied Technologies company does some truly innovative work in a wide variety of fields.
      Ron’s vision has taken McLaren from being another “garagista” to being one of the most successful teams in F1 and a brand recognised around the world for quality and innovation.

    5. Whitmarsh was an unmitigated disaster…..he had to go.

  2. The thing with Ron is he has guts. He is brave. He’s made things happen. Amazing that at one time he was a mechanic.

    1. Yes but this time he over-played his hand. Fortune favours the brave, and all that, but power corrupts also. I think this and a combination of McLaren-Honda not reaching the heights Ron had forecast when he replaced Whitmarsh has done him in.

      1. Yeah, but it was Whitmarsh that made the deal with Honda after Mercedes withdrew support in 2013.

        1. @selbbin, mind you, McLaren Racing Limited – the motorsport division – is a subsidiary of McLaren Group, and Ron Dennis was using his position as CEO of McLaren Group to exert pressure on Whitmarsh to strike that deal with Honda.

          It’s also worth noting that, according to insiders from Honda, Whitmarsh realised that it would take time for Honda to develop their engines and originally wanted Honda to enter the sport in 2016, giving time for McLaren to work with Honda to synchronise their chassis and engine development programs and to help Honda work through development issues.

          However, Ron Dennis was impatient to kick out Mercedes and pushed Honda into entering the sport a year earlier than they’d originally wanted to, forcing them to rush forward with development of their engines and resulting in the major reliability issues that they suffered last year.

          1. Interesting info. Cheers.

  3. All I can say about this is that it is a big mistake by McLaren.

    1. It is hard to tell if it was a mistake or not. What we do know is Honda-McLaren are just ahead of Torro Rosso – Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship, which arguably means the current Honda power system is slightly better than last year’s Ferrari power system.
      If McLaren-Honda improve their performance next year, then the new CEO will claim the credit for it.

      1. The driver pairing has a significant influence on that. Sainz Jr is just a promise and Kvyat is certainly below Alonso or Button’s level. Current Hond and last year’s Ferrari are, ate best, at the same level…

      2. Fudge Kobayashi (@)
        16th November 2016, 14:22

        It was a mistake. Red Bull have proven its possible to be a non works entry in a powerful position, and that is as much to do with their technical expertise as it is to do with their stubborn bargaining power for parity and works-level correlation with the manufacturer.

        McLaren will become just another Williams now and Lewis will in all likelihood be their last ever WDC.

  4. While I can respect the some of the man’s achievements I can’t say I like him, mainly due to the sorry mess in 2007. I think treating McLaren like a frontrunner in recent years when it can’t break into the top ten on a regular basis has kept away potential investors so you could argue though he’s been helpful he’s been as much of a hinderance.

    This kind of destablisation could have a lot of problems for McLaren’s ‘recovery’, but it seems the bosses don’t have faith in Dennis to lead it. Rather inglorious end, all said and done.

    Maybe he’ll go to another F1 team?

    1. I don’t see how Dennis was responsible for 2007.

      1. I’m not sure whether you’re joking or not.

        2007 was the very definition of driver mismanagement and the blame lays squarely at Ron Dennis’ feet. Sure, both Alonso and Hamilton played their part but ultimately the buck stops with the Team Principal……and he dropped the ball in most absurd of ways and cost McLaren a Driver’s Championship at a minimum.

        1. Agree , but Ron was ultimately sticking to his strong principles of having equal drivers. Nothing seemed to make him prouder than suppling two equal cars to two top drivers at a time when some didn’t have the resources.
          Personally I think as soon Ferrari built their team around Schumacher and stopped team mates taking points off him, McLaren should have countered it by taking a clear number one all the way through the 2000’s to at least 2008. A few titles to be had there.

        2. Ok, maybe I can agree to that. I thought he was referring to the spying scandal.

          Overall I think Dennis was a dedicated and well-intentioned leader with a long-term vision. I think he is responsible for a lot of good things at McLaren, especially the tech center and road car effort. He also always tried to run his team like a family and sincerely cared for every single driver that worked for him, and that can’t be said about every team. Of course he did mismanage things sometimes, and naively underestimated important aspects. But still a good man!

    2. I agree.

      One cannot overlook the achievements over his three decade tenure at McLaren – especially in the late 80s. However, and of course it’s pure speculation as I’ve never met the man, but he doesn’t seem like a good person. Kinda of like the opposite of say Ross Brawn who seems like a decent fellow.

      1. I’m not so sure, I think Ron is more honest than Ross, but a lot harder. Ron is a little bit OCD apparently and a stickler for his ways.

    3. The ‘sorry mess in 2007’ @rocketpanda was about 2005, the GPMA and the vindictive Max Mosley. The reality of ‘spygate’ was that it was nothing to do with Ron, and wasn’t even spying. Max, with Ferrari, blew it up and misrepresented it, when it was a dossier stolen by a Ferrari employee intended for Honda. McLaren didn’t even bother to check their email archive, so they got ‘nailed’ for three trivial items, while Max went on to make his point by getting Renault completely let off for a much worse bit of IP theft.

      It’s annoying to me that Mosley’s disgusting behaviour is probably why Frank has a K and not Ron.

    4. Don’t forget Whitmarsh was effectively team principle in 2007.

  5. Coming up to 20 years without a constructors championship, it probably took a while to stop thinking of Williams as a top team as well but I think if we face facts, McLaren are midfield at best.

    Dennis has been all talk since his return. Title sponsor, the Honda engine. I think his last joke has been dragging Alonso back to this team as his final act of vengeance.

    1. @philipgb – LOL regarding your Dennis/Alonso comment. Never thought about it that way, but you could very well be right.

      Whilst I am a McLaren fan, I’m not really a Ron Dennis fan, never have been. You cannot argue with his successes. Likewise with his failures.

      1. Actually Ron dragging Alonso to mclaren makes a lot of sense. Alonso sent mclaren spinning after the incidents of 2007. So he brings Alonso back with promises of a competitive car, then Alonso get relegated to deck chair duty and back marker battles

        1. That said, as far as Alonso is concerned it makes no difference. It’s the end of 2016, when his original Ferrari contract was due to run out, and all they’ve had is three wins, and are now slipping right back again. From Alonso’s point of view, at least he’s getting paid millions to do the deck chair duties.

        2. That is complete contrary to what Ron and Fernando said in interviews when he re-signed. Also, it was Martin Whitmarsh who initiated talks with Alonso, not Ron. He admitted it on Skysports.

          Ultimately it was Lewis who disrupted the team in 2007 Ron was stuck in a corner, but backed Alonso after Hungary and Alonso’s ‘massive blackmail row’ was a 30 minute heated exchange with Martin Whitmarsh for which Alonso apologised the same day. This info comes from the court case documents.

      2. “You cannot argue with his successes. Likewise with his failures.”
        Comment of the day.

    2. It wasn’t just the Honda deal that sunk McLaren, but the massive change in the personnel, with so many top engineers and managers leaving for Mercedes. Losing Paddy was a big blow. I have full confidence that McLaren will return to frontrunner status, unlike Williams, because the resources are immense. But that said, even Williams has pushed to near the front of the grid over the last few years. Next year’s change in regulations, a new team that has now had a proper season working together, and Honda slowly coming good, along with a scrap on engine tokens, bodes well.

      1. @selbbin

        Williams has had immense resources. Up until BMW leaving, they were considered title contenders.

        McLaren has suffered more than Williams ever did, especially in terms of losing sponsors.

        1. The 2015 budgets according to crash.net was:

          1. Red Bull Racing (€266m + €35.7m + €167m) = €468.7m
          2. Mercedes (€122m + €212.4m + €133m) = €467.4m
          3. McLaren Honda (€144.5m + €216.5m + €104m) = €465m
          4. Ferrari (€208.5m + €34.5m + €175m) = €418m
          5. Williams (€52.5m + €22.9m + €111m) = €186.4m

        2. Up until BMW leaving, they were considered title contenders.

          That’s an extremely important point. McLaren was also a frequent title contender and race winner up until their privileged partnership with Mercedes came to an end at the beginning of 2013.

    3. @philipgb Williams was sort of a top team again for 1.5-2 years after 2013.

    4. Martin Whitmarsh initiated brigning Alonso back and it was something Honda pressed. (interview with MW on youtube via Skysports)

  6. Not unexpected, he has been talking about signing a major sponsor since 2014.

    1. @paeschli It’s being announced this week.

      1. @PorscheF1 a new title sponsor along with an update to the Honda engine to make it equal to Mercedes….all coming next week

  7. As being just a relatively new follower I never got to see anything good from Dennis, which is a shame as there’s definitely a lot of respect around for him. I wonder if this change will trickle down to much of the team, it’d be a sad to see a shake-up as big things are expected of them next year and instability could imaginably hinder that.

    1. +1 to this, particularly not having much context as a new follower, I’m in the same boat.

      1. @Tristan @phylyp
        Both fair comments if new following F1, you certainly haven’t seen the best of Ron Dennis.

        I have been following F1 for 30 years and back then you did see a passionate F1 guy at his best. In the 80’s he would go see Lauda, Prost or Senna get out of the car after win and give them a big hug, even with smiles. Just watch the ‘Senna’ movie and you see his reaction to the journalist that was about to touch Ayrton after his big win in Brazil when he cramped up- he was going to smack him one!!

        Sad for him to go out this way to be honest, been great for F1 but maybe 10 years earlier, before Spygate, would have left a greater legacy!

        Best of luck to Ron!

    2. As a teenager I watched McLaren grow from mediocre to dominant team. Later it has grown into technological giant known as MTG. In both cases Ron was the person at the helm, navigating constantly increasing grow. Strategic wise this decision is not like accidentally shooting your own foot, it’s much worse ’cause it’s the head.

  8. I think for many, he was part of the problem not the solution.
    Poor Boullier having Ron on his shoulder at every race watching every decision. It never works having your boss there.

    1. I felt that way too.

  9. When Ron stepped back in 2009 you could still kind of feel his presence lurking in the background. Now it looks as though he will have to maintain total hands off.

    Just speaking of the McLaren F1 team structure it looks to be a huge and difficult beast to reshape/restructure/rebuild to get back to a successful level. While the team has achieved far better results in 2016 it still seems lacking in many ways for a team with such huge resources. Much like Ferrari in that regard, great resources do not always add up to even good results.

    If Ron Dennis could not tame the beast McLaren F1 team, who can? Ross Brawn does not want the job, that is for sure. Eric Boullier is apparently doing a pretty fine job with what he has, but he is probably best in his current position. The politics that have led to the departure of Ron Dennis will likely weigh heavy on whomever replaces him. There again a correlation to Ferrari and their woes due in large part to a game of political pressures that become a hindrance to running a proper racing team despite massive resources.

    Having been a fan of Bruce McLaren in the 1960s when he began this great and historic team I would still love to see them be successful again someday. That success, or failure, is now in the hands of someone other than Ron Dennis. A new chapter is being written. We will see what the new regime brings.

    1. Maybe McLaren just got too big? Down size and put them in the hands of Flavio Briatore :))

  10. OK, I wasn’t going to go there, but can’t help it. ;)

    The top photo in this post looks like the next job for Ron Dennis may very well be as a body double for Putin.

    1. You were right, because you shouldn’t have gone there. Not funny.
      Much more like Napoleon.

    2. Fudge Kobayashi (@)
      16th November 2016, 14:25

      Stick to your day jobs fellas.

  11. McLaren F1 had clearly lost a big step over the last several years and I think it’s fair to lay much of that on Ron. However, their road car business and their OEM technology group have been huge successes and I find it more than a bit concerning that they wouldn’t find a way for Ron to stay on with that side. OTOH, maybe Ron didn’t want that path. Certainly the end of hugely significant era for F1 and automotive history.

  12. Not sure where this leaves Mclaren. Looking from afar it looks like the whole organisation is in disarray from the corporate structure to the team itself. Whoever comes in to replace Ron is going to have to be a very determined, confident and strong mentally to take this team forward. There will be big pressure on the next man in and the questions are going to be put to him when Mclaren struggle. He has to be able to do that and try and build a team that can win championships. I’d love to know what TAG and the Bahrain fund want and how it differed from Ron who loves Mclaren and has had so much success. For the next man its an almost impossible job.

  13. That’s one reason less to dislike his team. Frightening person.

  14. The grounds they have stated are entirely spurious

    Well, sounds like he is being “fired”. The divorce is not smooth at all, bridges are being burned

    But my first concern is to the business I have built and to its 3,500 employees.

    Obviosly Ron considers McLaren as his own baby and this will get to a personal level fight, between him and the rest of the shareholders. No doubt he continues with the following.

    I will continue to use my significant shareholding

    I intend to launch a new technology investment fund

    And with this new technology fund he wants to show that he can still make it and was booted unfairly.

    It’s a said state of affair for McLaren I fear. Such great friction at the top of the shareholders can not bring positive things and I am not sure Ron is thinking about the future of McLaren, rather his own pride. I am not a McLaren fan, but does not mean I don’t care about such great contributor to this sport.

    I hope the future will prove me wrong

    1. I think if it was about the money, Ron would have long sold out. Ron had a vision for McLaren, and he pursued it with determination. It is this same vision that may conflict with other shareholders whose interests may be vapid.

  15. 3 decades of running a top team… after starting out as a mechanic? Love him or hate him, that deserves respect!

    Is he making way for a pay-principal?

  16. Now that’s a sad end to an era. I admire the guy for what he did to the team, but recent seasons have taken a lot of the shine McLaren once had, and not just in their livery. Let’s not forget that Ron returned to the role claiming a major title sponsor was just around the corner, and not only did that not happen, other historic sponsors have left too. Not to mention the difficulties with Honda and the car, which isn’t all that good either…

    A political row within the directors room isn’t what the team need right now, so maybe now the future holds a little surprise in the good sense this time.

  17. Ron is useless Well done.

  18. Ok. So I guess next years McLaren will be orange now…….

    1. I’ll take the Castrol-McLaren please!

  19. Ron Dennis is a man who has achieved extraordinary things with McLaren. This is a man who took a fledgling racing team and transformed it into an even more successful racing team that now makes production road cars and is one of the most technologically capable automakers on the planet. What he has achieved is unlikely ever to be equaled ever again.

    1. +1
      Your comment sums up exactly how I feel about Ron.
      Its easy not to give credit when their F1 team not doing so well at present.
      But McLaren is a formidable company and it was built by Ron. Respect where its due.

  20. The Honda deal was the nail in the coffin. There’s no nostalgia to be had here, it’s not going to work, go back to Mercedes! Honda can continue success in IndyCar.

    1. @tweak If there is one thing that is almost certain is that to win championships, going back to Mercedes won’t work. Engines are simply too important and if a team doesn’t have their own, they won’t win.

      Having said that, I am losing confidence in Honda’s progress. They are capable of getting there one day, but how long can they wait?

  21. Fair well, Ron.

    Thanks for plenty of good memories.

  22. I really have not been paying much attention to McLaren lately, but would this decision influence Eric Boullier to leave for a more stable position at a team like Ferrari? I recall that there were rumors of talks between the two parties, but that could have been total horse pucky.

    1. @ferrox-glideh

      more stable position at a team like Ferrari?

      stable? Ferrari? Really?

      1. Haha, i laughed as well! All Eric can do at Ferrari is fail and eat a lot more pasta. At McLaren at least he can stay and aim for a better life, because even if slowly, they are making some sort of progress

      2. Scuderia means stable in Italian so in that respect Ferrari is more STABLE. Out of the fire into the frying pan comes to mind if Boullier went to Ferrari.

        Imagine Ron at Ferrari, that would be like Trump + Brexut times a million in terms of a shock.

      3. Yeah, Ferrari is at the moment as stable as Italy, geologically.

    2. @ferrox-glideh @fer-no65 Boullier back to Enstone, you heard it here first! :P

  23. Hard to replace Ron, he has been the soul of the team, even when he wasn’t leading it

    McLaren – Ron ≠ McLaren

    1. It’s hard to imagine the team without him. Funny to think that it was incompetency at another car manufacturers end (Honda) that ultimately led to the firing of s Mclaren CEO

      1. @todfod I think that’s pretty unfair. While Honda’s F1 engine is, frankly, garbage, it’s not like the car it’s powering is particularly good. McLaren lost their title sponsor before Honda came along, and key technical personnel like Paddy Lowe were jumping ship to teams which had far more promise.

        Put a Mercedes PU up the bum of that McLaren and do you really think it would be winning races? No chance. Look at the mess of it skidding around all through the Brazillian GP. It’s a bad car, it lacks downforce and it’s clearly not balanced. They have two good drivers who are, frankly, driving around a car which is not good in any way. Look at the Red Bull by contrast, to see what a good chassis married to an underpowered engine can achieve. If the chassis was so good on the McLaren, why did they not manage to beat the likes of Toro Rosso and Force India in Monaco where engine power counts for very little and chassis is king?

        Frankly, the poor Honda engine is masking the poor job that McLaren have been doing. It’s a convenient excuse, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. McLaren aren’t a winning team held back by a substandard engine – they’re a midfield team these days. Nobody wants to sponsor them, drivers don’t want to race for them, and key technical personnel don’t want to work for them. The blame for all of that really must be laid at the feet of the man in charge. McLaren are in an awful slump of his making, and it’s going to take a long time for them to fully recover. And that’s if they even do recover – I could see them becoming like Williams.

  24. This isn’t the first time Ron has “stepped down”. Last time was when his team got caught cheating, and he fell on his sword to reduce the penalty — then promptly came back afterwards. Hopefully he stays gone this time. His team had a culture of cheating under his rule, and F1 doesn’t need any more cheats.

    1. Yes but this isn’t Ron voluntarily stepping down, he’s being ousted for attempting to do a deal that the rest of the board didn’t agree with. Essentially he was trying to sell the whole McLaren conglomeration to a Chinese consortium. The rest of the directors didn’t want to sell and didn’t agree with the course Ron was taking. So it’s Sayonara Ron. He’s already said he’s starting a technology company so won’t be back, unless he does so well that he later launches and succeeds in a hostile takeover of McLaren group.

      1. @mortyvicar Yes, failed takeover attempt as you say, he already announced a while back he wanted majority. Says it was because of his management style though.. ;)

    2. knoxploration, I think you’re fairly naive if you think that Ron was any worse than most of the field. For example, remember how, back in 2007, the Spyker F1 team filing a complaint with the FIA about Toro Rosso’s STR02 breaking the rules on customer cars by being too closely related to the RB3?

      To support their case, in the Malaysian GP Spyker turned up in the stewards office and presented them with drawings from the factory for both the RB3 and the STR02 which were clearly labelled as being produced by “Red Bull Racing”. Interestingly, Spyker never explained how they had managed to obtain drawings which could only have been obtained by targeted espionage work within Red Bull’s production centre…

      1. His team was caught cheating more often and more explicitly than any other. For example, direct lies to the stewards from drivers, drivers cooperating with the rest of the team in trying to obtain more stolen info from rivals, etc. At McLaren, the cheating was clearly their modus operandi, and not an aberration.

        But to be clear, I don’t think any cheat in F1 should be given more than one chance, and even then only if they directly and contritely confess to their cheating and ensure nothing remotely similar ever happens again. Repeat cheating a la McLaren or (to choose another example) a la Michael Schumacher should not be tolerated, and should result in all records set during the seasons in which cheating occurred being nullified and the participants permanently barred from F1.

        1. Complete nonsense. McLaren were the least cheating team of the 90’s and 2000’s. A couple of individuals trying to cover their mistake or boost their standing in the team with leaked ideas doesn’t define a team. Ferrari were the biggest cheats, it was their hidden pre-buckled stay that led to spygate, followed by Benetton with their traction control and fuel rig fixing, Renault with crashgate, for just three examples.

        2. knoxploration. You clearly have no idea what you’re talking about, either that or you have a damned good libel lawyer in tow…

  25. The moment they changed something fundamental, whatever that might have been, in the winter of 2012 McLaren sent itself (not Honda, not Ron, not the drivers,…) to the midfield. As we have seen over the many years the midfield is a room of which you almost cannot escape; Another reason why one should have a massive amount of respect for what Red Bull did.

    1. McCartney were strong for a long time. Red Bull are 11 years old plenty of time for them to fall into the midfield but they would quit as soon as that happened.

    2. It was choosing to scrap the design of the super quick but unreliable mp4-27 in mid 2012 when performance suffered and designing the mp4-28 from the ground up using completely different ideas. They realized they made a big mistake once the mp4-27 came good and dominated the end of 2012, but it was too late. If they kept the same design and improved it, 2013 would have been a championship year. IMO anyway.

    3. Well… Red Bull have enormous amounts of money and pinched many of the top engineers from around the grid.

  26. Poor Stoffel Vandoorne.

    Made to wait way too long for his start in F1 and now that he’s finally got it, the once great Mclaren implodes.

    I fear that 2017 will be a disaster as their investment in F1 s completely starved by directors with no vision.

  27. I usually base my opinions on the little things; the small details that make up the Big Picture.

    In the case of McLaren, one of those little things is the fact that an acquaintance of mine works for McLaren, as an engineer. He has this one little odd quirk; … he seriously thinks that the Moon landings were a hoax.

    … and he works for McLaren.

    … as an engineer.

    1. Don’t make me sad. :(

    2. Ask your friend if he thinks the photos taken of the Moon landings sites by satellites orbiting the Moon proving that the landings did indeed take place are also fakes too? If I remember correctly, one of those photos shows the Moon rover tracks as well.

    3. To be fair, one bad apple doesn’t spoil the bunch.
      Additionally, engineers tend to be a very peculiar lot. Normally, high degrees of formal education roughly correlate with enlightened views. For engineers, they don’t.

  28. Forced to accept to step down, funny he did the same to Magnussen and Perez exactly end of season, hope he can make a similar comeback as they did, even I doubt it

    1. My thoughts exactly

  29. If the internet is telling the truth, Dennis has a personal net worth if almost a billion $. Calling it now: He’s going to buy Manor, sign Button fir

    1. … for 2018 and beat McLaren with Honda engines in the back.

    2. I hope so! I like Manor. It’s my favourite underdog team. So glad they made their comeback and super annoyed that Sauber, who used to be my fav ‘underdog’ team before Monisha’s evil empire, took the points in Brazil. Boo!

      Or should McLaren be my fav underdog team…. :P

    3. :-) How cool would that be huh?

    4. I like it!

    5. That would be amazing, mouth watering. Its something Ron definitely would have an appetite for you’d imagine

  30. Francesca Norsan
    15th November 2016, 23:14

    The biggest casualty in the mist of a personal boardroom attack against Ron
    No one will be as successful- he had passion “The others ” only money ! Without money they got nothing Ron in other hand have a long record of winning a self made legend.

  31. Another sad moment for F1. I wonder if this is why Jenson seems a bit down. Wasn’t his agreement to stay with McLaren as an ambassador between him and Ron and that may no longer be the case?

    1. Hmmm interesting point. He certainly didn’t pull any punches on his comments on the team’s performance in Brazil…

  32. Breath of fresh air.

  33. In Ron’s own words to Eddie Jordan when he arrived in F1, “welcome to the Piranha Club”. Ironic that Ron has been pushed in that way. Impossible to quantify fully what he has brought to F1, a huge loss to F1.

  34. Another boss that is fired under Alonso’s era… how many bosses where fired under his era? 80% of Ferrari team out, even the big bosses. And McLaren going the same way, Honda boss, now Dennis, who will be next?

    I predict next year will be the last year Honda will have patience, if they don’t see good results, if they see awful results, probably they will be the next to dissappear, next year could be last year of Honda in the F1, Alonso is been cashing 2 years in a row, and next year will be his last year cashing big money without results. I don’t think they will renew his contract after all this massive economic and organizative damage where he goes.

    It’s incredible in all teams he’s been he made the bosses been fired: if u make the full list u will be scared to see the top names, some are: Briatore, Symonds, Montezemolo, Dominecalli, Mattiaci, Dyer, Ron Dennis, The honda boss (don’t remember his name) …

  35. More pushed down the stairs than sepped down!!
    Although owning 25% of the company….I think his move to Honda sealed his fate…2 years of development and probably a further year to go…probably went a year too early.
    And will miss Ron who never answers a question ….could have been in politics

  36. The technology fund to be set up by Dennis next year, why not invest all of its capital in MTG…

  37. Ron is well out of F1, it’s too corrupt for someone who makes enemies the way he does. Fined $100m because Bernie and max didn’t like him, according to that biography of Bernie. Even in 2012 the McLaren floor was banned for using a legal tolerance, while Red Bull were cheerfully using FIA’s own testing table to disguise their bendiness!

    Hopefully he’s going to do something new and exciting.

  38. It all went downhill in 2012 when they offered Lewis an insulting contract and he left. Soon Vodafone left and the rest is history. Then you take the Honda engine instead of sticking with Mercedes engine and you have dug your own grave.

  39. I heard Perez and magnussen are trowing a big good riddance party.
    Live by the sword die by the sword.

  40. “Dennis steps dawn from McLaren” No, Dennis was pushed out of McLaren for the second time.

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