Ron Dennis done at McLaren F1

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The last paragraph in Shannow's link is the most important in F1. It's customary in F1 to give an engineer or principal at least six months gardening leave so he doesn't take any cutting edge secrets with him. It's been speculated that if Charlie Whiting leaves his post, he'll be getting one year gardening leave because he sees all the cutting edge designs of all the teams.

It was speculated last week that Ron would be gone by this weekend, despite his contract being valid longer than that, and despite his protestations.
 
Originally Posted By: billt460
Why exactly do they want him out? The article wasn't to informative in that regard.

Seemes to me this excerpt from BBC article on Ron Dennis offers a plausible summary:
Originally Posted By: http://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/37987396
Under Dennis' leadership, McLaren won 10 drivers' titles with Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen and Lewis Hamilton, and seven constructors' championships.

However, the team has slipped from the front in recent years and the decision to join forces with engine partner Honda led in 2015 to the worst season in their history.

Honda entered F1 when it was not ready, a decision at least partly down to McLaren, whose engine partnership with Mercedes was ending in 2014 and who pushed for the Honda deal to start as soon as possible.

Dennis has also failed to secure a new title sponsor to replace mobile phone giant Vodafone, which left at the end of 2013.

Other lost sponsors have been replaced by similar deals but, notwithstanding Honda's significant financial contribution over and above the provision of free power units, the absence of a title sponsor for the past three years has cast doubt in Dennis's fellow shareholders' minds on his ability to procure major sponsorship con
tracts in the digital age.


Kevin
 
From an outside view it appears that ousting Ron Dennis is a power play controlled by financial interests. His reluctance to retire gracefully and go home to garden reflects the idea that his work with McLaren is in fact his garden.

Remember, Ron Dennis predicted exactly how the relationship with Honda would work out, exactly. He was a good company man and enthusiastically got behind the deal once it was made and put on a happy face in public. When his decisions were allowed to be implemented straight up he was usually successful, so often that one had to suspect that he was very good at his job. When he came behind a bad idea he rolled up his sleeves and fixed it instead of pointing out that he was correct. This got him blamed for several "bad ideas" of which he was not responsible.

Like him or not, Ron Dennis is McLaren.
 
As for why, there's the usual talk about differing management styles, and so forth. Sponsorship matters could contribute, too. However, an insider did mention at Austin this year that Mobil was getting tired of seeing smoking McLaren-Hondas being hoisted onto a flatbed truck with Mobil and Esso stickers on them. As an aside, when it comes to Renault, Total might be cutting funding across the board, and might just be a technical partner, and not a sponsor. Red Bull seems to be ahead of the curve in all this, and with Adrian Newey once again interested in F1, things will be interesting.

And yes, Ron Dennis is McLaren. I agree with your post completely, OneEyeJack. I hope this isn't one of the "be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it" situations for those responsible.
 
Well, he was until now, basically. He was a little more out of the picture for a period of time when Whitmarsh was team principal, but that didn't last terribly long. I'm also fairly certain I've seen Ron Dennis at the races on TV even during that period, but I could be mistaken.
 
Originally Posted By: Garak
Well, he was until now, basically. He was a little more out of the picture for a period of time when Whitmarsh was team principal, but that didn't last terribly long. I'm also fairly certain I've seen Ron Dennis at the races on TV even during that period, but I could be mistaken.


I had begun to notice how infrequently I was seeing him and it was very infrequent considering how hands-on he had been over the years. I had wondered if his ego couldn't allow him to be so close to it while they're in a losing streak. But that doesn't make sense. Maybe it didn't make sense to his Board either. It's a shame in any event.
 
I would speculate his absence over a few races this season might have been him trying to get capital together to purchase enough shares to be majority shareholder. He was working with Chinese investors, and conflicting reports are that he couldn't come up with enough, or he couldn't do it in time, or that the price didn't satisfy the selling shareholders.

The team may wind up realizing a lot of McLaren fans happened to be Ron Dennis fans. A race weekend isn't quite right without at least one of Ron Dennis, Sir Frank, Bernie, and Niki being there, and I've probably missed a couple other names, too.
 
Originally Posted By: Garak
I would speculate his absence over a few races this season might have been him trying to get capital together to purchase enough shares to be majority shareholder. He was working with Chinese investors, and conflicting reports are that he couldn't come up with enough, or he couldn't do it in time, or that the price didn't satisfy the selling shareholders.

The team may wind up realizing a lot of McLaren fans happened to be Ron Dennis fans. A race weekend isn't quite right without at least one of Ron Dennis, Sir Frank, Bernie, and Niki being there, and I've probably missed a couple other names, too.



This has not been a good stretch of time for him. He seemed to take his divorce rather hard as well. Just my impression but I thought I noticed a change in the few interviews I've seen since then and not so much of the zero tolerance for errors he's famous for.

I feel the same as you about seeing one of those guys on a race weekend. One of the weaknesses of the otherwise enjoyabe NBC coverage (back when I still had it) was that their pre and post race "celebrity" coverage seemed to falter after the Peter Windsor era. And there was so little time devoted to it before race start. Sky does a somewhat better job but still not impressive. No "sense of occasion" somehow.
 
That may be. I didn't get to see a lot of the most recent interviews, and now I'll be regretting it. The preshow and grid walk are hit and miss for me, depending on my mood and time.

I'm fairly happy with the Sky coverage, which is what we get here. Martin Brundle does a nice grid walk, though the interviews aren't exactly hard hitting. Of course, that's the intent, so I can live with that. With Ron Dennis gone, it brings to mind what Brundle said in that one grid walk when he was really antsy after talking to Bernie, before the new arrangement was announced. He mentioned that sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for, be that Bernie being gone or Ron being gone.

Speaking of coverage, I wish they would have let us known about Sir Frank's hospitalization. It might have been mentioned in passing a couple times that I missed, but they seemed to be rather quiet about it.
 
From here, I just had to add this picture, a bit apropos and something that is truly iconic when it comes to an F1 weekend.

If Norman Rockwell had painted pictures of F1 weekends, I bet he would have made one based on something like this:

b2b2ca166623d5278ca109051354c6e6.jpg
 
Reported today, Ron Dennis is selling all his shares and leaving the director positions, with respect to both McLaren companies. I'm sure the 275 million pounds will be nice.
wink.gif
I guess the era is over. He makes out with some money, while those who got rid of him get to tear their hair out for the next several months. As they say, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.

And I found a "modern" version of the above noted picture, cool to compare them.

ron-dennis-sir-frank-williams-f1-ron-dennis_3317226.jpg
 
No problem. The last one was at the 2015 Austrian GP. Here's a composite, the right one a slightly different shot of the other one I presented, taken around the same time:

Two-photos-20-years-apart-immeasurable-F1-knowledge.jpg


The stories those two men could tell....
 
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