RD to leave Mclaren role

Ron Dennis set to leave McLaren top job when contract expires - F1 - Autosport


Dennis's exit will mark the culmination of two years of behind-the-scenes boardroom struggle at McLaren, since his return to the Group CEO role in January 2014.

At that time Dennis, a 25% shareholder in the group, planned to acquire a full controlling shareholding by buying out the 50% owned by Bahraini sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat and the 25% owned by his long-time business partner Mansour Ojjeh.

Autosport understands that deadlines by which Dennis was required to raise the capital in order to complete the buyout have not been met.

 

Death spiral....

 

A great pity.

Ron Dennis is to McLaren what Colin Chapman was to Lotus, or Enzo Ferrari was to Ferrari.

 

Enzo was never owned by Bahrarni "Wealth Fund'.

 

True. But he was owned by the Italian wealth fund known as Fiat. Not dissimilar...

 

Keep in mind he's nearly 70.

I was surprised, too. Guessed him 10 years younger.n

 

+1 every team has a master!

 

Bye bye Ron. I won't miss you one bit. Maybe he'll end up on Top Gear with his "best friend" Eddie Jordan.

 

So... who is gonna run McLaren now? The article doesn´t exactly say that Ron is not going to continue.

 

+1 He took McLaren to great heights

90% Fiat ownership

 

Article says the company denied he is leaving though and it is not unusual for ownership structures to change. So sounds like it could be true, but might not be in reality?

 

Enzo considered selling to Ford, and finally accepted Fiat rescue.

What the difference with McLaren having Midle-Eastern shareholders?

 

Foreign ownership has an impact in a few ways wouldn't you agree? At the very least I would say management style is drastically different across some countries.

Fiat is at least Italian and they understood what Ferrari meant to the country, not just as a company.

 

+1
Fiat is also a car manufacturer.

Ownership by a VC Fund from the desert is not always a natural fit.

 

+1

Everything Mclaren has done and is today is due to Ron. The only major mistake he made along the way was putting Whitmarsh as TP of the F1 team. Mclaren as a whole will go downhill quickly without him.

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Martin Withmarsh? That I want to see

 

I wonder what Honda thinks.

 

Fiat is registered in the Netherlands now, no?
And it's half American too, no?

Also Ferrari is independent from Fiat, and some of the shareholders are unknown.

So, I don't know what is reprehensible in McLaren having Arab investors. Fiat has Arab investors, so has Mercedes. Jaguar-Land Rover has Indian owners.
Volvo belongs to the Chinese, Lotus to Malaysians, etc ....
Rolls-Royce and Bentley have German owners.

I cannot see where is the problem.

 

Agree.

 

Fiat and Ford were still car companies.

Big difference.

 

I think the corporate top McLaren Technology Group would be lost without Dennis. It's his vision that has let them create a viable road car division, create the Technology Consulting division, etc etc. The race team is now only a small part of the company in terms of budget and revenue.

There may be some juggling of structure and role, perhaps in conjunction with the arrival of new investors or the sale of shares or equity, perhaps with respect to the rumored Apple investment, but I very much doubt that Dennis will relinquish his involvement in managing and directing McLaren... and I would be surprised if his partners actually wanted Dennis to be out.

 

Errr did I misread the article?

From the article, I understood it as Ron is NOT stepping down at the end of the season? The McLaren representative in the article said Dennis "categorically won't be stepping down" and that they are more or less in the same discussion about what's next in terms of a buyout etc.

 

Difference with what?

What is your point?

Car companies belong to shareholders, independently from where they are registered, and most of them are anonymous. Some of them are banks, institutions, governments, etc...

 

I due time, Ron Dennis will receive credit for what he has accomplished.

 

Car companies know that there is value in history and respect for figureheads and for what they have accomplished.

Wealth funds only look at the bottom line.