Ron Dennis Bids Farewell To McLaren

Ron Dennis Bids Farewell To McLaren

Happier times - Ron Dennis (R) with Ayrton Senna (L). Source: McLaren.com

After 37 years at the helm, Ron Dennis, Chairman of McLaren Automotive and McLaren Technology Group, has officially ended ties to the group with the sale of his shares in these companies and stepping down as Chairman.

McLaren Mika Hakkinen - Copy
Mika Häkkinen

Motorsports fans will know that Ron Dennis’ career in motorsports is nothing short of illustrious, having steered the McLaren Formula One team to 158 Grand Prix wins and 17 World Championships. Under his stewardship were great drivers like Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Gerhard Berger, Mika Häkkinen, David Coulthard, Jenson Button, Kimi Räikkönen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, to name a few.

Dennis is credited to have brought the McLaren team back to life by securing the Marlboro sponsorship which subsidized the team’s growth until the mid-90s, when Marlboro decided to switch to sponsoring Ferrari. Dennis countered this by eventually bagging Vodafone from Ferrari, after tobacco money was disallowed in the sport. Before that happened, he managed to get West to fill Marlboro’s absence in the team and changed the car’s livery to silver and grey, in line with Mercedes’ colors.

He was also instrumental in getting Porsche to build the successful 1.5 liter twin turbo V6 engine that powered the MP4/2 and MP4/3 cars in the mid-80s, as well as recruiting legendary designer Adrian Newey from Williams.

In 2004, he launched McLaren Applied Technologies which focuses on applying motorsport-bred technologies to a wide range of industries, and in 2010, formed McLaren Automotive to make commercial high-performance sports cars.

There were lows, of course, such as the Alonso-Hamilton and Andretti-Mansell driver partnerships, Spygate controversy as well as the most recent Honda partnership.

The McLaren Technology Centre
The McLaren Technology Centre

The sovereign investment fund – Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company and TAG Group remain majority shareholders. McLaren Automotive and McLaren Technology Group will now be placed under the McLaren Group, with Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa becoming the McLaren Group’s Executive Chairman and Mansour Ojjeh its Executive Committee Principal.

 

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