Ron

Good to see Ron Dennis back at the races, now Mad Max is history.

 

That was one of my first thoughts when I saw him. Looks like he was just biding his time until Max was finally gone

 

Thanks I missed it.
Ron has earned a place in F1. Max has earned an exit

 

Regardless of how you may feel with regard to Ron Dennis, you have to give him props for his time in F1. He helped usher in a more professional atmosphere into F1 and along with others such as BE was responsible for taking F1 from being a garagiste activity by mostly amateurs and transforming it into a PR-driven, professional appearance that was cultivated to be attractive to large corporate sponsors. Although others had started F1 down this path, Ron was the one that took his corporate appearance to the highest level, made his team attractive to the corporate world, and maintained this appearance by demanding professional conduct and appearance by all team members.

To me this will be his legacy.

IMHO, RD's main problem is that he was bitter personal enemies with Mad Max and Max was not merciful and give it in full to RD at every possibility. In many circumstances, McLaren was punished far more harshly than other teams for the same offense. We have seen it over and over and over... Max made it his personal duty to drag RD and his team through the mud and discredited him at every opportunity.

Message of the story is to not p*** off heads of organizations with absolute power. It usually ends in tears. Poor RD, with his reputation in tatters, all that he worked for years to accomplish, Max tarnished and destroyed at every opportunity.

Regardless of how you feel about McLaren, you have to admire the accomplishments of a strong competitor. It is far more gratifying to win on the track rather than due to Max's out-of-line punishment of a team, that ruins their competitiveness and diminished the accomplishments of a great team such as Ferrari. It is a far greater feeling to defeat an opponent at the peak of his powers, than a crippled, inneffective team...

Frank

 

Hear hear ...

 

+1.

I think RD is a huge dic...tator BUT one can't ignore what he has archieved!

 

+1000
Excellent post .

 

The stewards, under the direction of Jean Todt, who is under the direction of Max Mosley, have announced a 10 spot grid penalty for the '10 Australian Grand Prix to each McLaren car for 'the unauthorized presence of a Ron Dennis in the Paddock'.

 

Ron's appearance today may have more to do with his long standing Mid-East connections than anything else.
Still it was good to see him back.

 

+1. his road cars are basically being financed by mid-eastern banks

 

Great post. I never had a problem with RD. He did what he did with great efficiency IMO.

 

I am sure there was a big component of PR with his financiers in the reason behind his being there.

But I have no doubt there was a component of "FU Max!" of him being prominently there as well. And I am sure it irked Mosley to see it.

And that makes Ron smile. And me too.

 

Well that too, but I'm sure Ron came despite that