It’s the end of an era. Bernie Ecclestone exits Formula 1 leadership, Luca di Montezemolo moves on at Ferrari. Claire Williams has firmly grabbed the reins from Sir Frank Williams. Peter Sauber is out of the picture at the Sauber team. Now, Ron Dennis is selling his stake in McLaren.
These are all names that have been synonymous with F1 for decades and now they are passing into the night with only Sir Frank doing so with some level of celebration, respect and honor. Ron’s departure was an ugly affair but he says he’s glad he’s going.
“I am very pleased to have reached agreement with my fellow McLaren shareholders. It represents a fitting end to my time at McLaren, and will enable me to focus on my other interests,” Dennis said.
“I have always said that my 37 years at Woking should be considered as a chapter in the McLaren book, and I wish McLaren every success as it takes the story forward.
“I wish McLaren well, and I send my greatest thanks and best wishes to my colleagues in all corners of its business, and at every level of seniority. Truly, they are the best of the best.
“And, well funded to succeed and grow, and led by an ambitious management team, McLaren is ideally poised to build on the successes that I am so proud to have contributed to during my time leading such a great British group of companies.”
If I’m honest, I’ll miss RonSpeak. I miss the legends of the sport.
Hat Tip: Sky Sport
I will miss him as well. I always liked him. I was never clear about the spying scandal, but I’ve always felt Ron was a driven to perfection individual, but ALWAYS totally honorable. Looking back on the innovations he brought to F1 and their effect on F1 over the subsequent years, the greatest innovation yet was the carbon fiber monocoque. In my mind , Nothing surpasses that. All one has to do is count the fatalities in the sport since its introduction. The look at the number of deaths previously.
Bernie, Ron and Flavio should all go in and but Force India. I’d love to see Flavio back as a regular on the grid walks.
Somebody summed it up perfectly “From a spanner monkey to a multimillionaire”.
It seems a pity that shareholders that Ron brought in to help build the McLaren Group should eventually oust the driving force behind it all. To have built McLaren racing into a €2.2billion McLaren Group, including the second most winning F1 team, and since 2010 a range of supercars and hypercars that rival Ferrari. Plus an applied technology group that works with pharmaceutical and automotive companies. It looks like things could have gone a different way, as Ron Dennis had a few goes at raising the capital to buy out Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Mansour Ojjeh. I hope… Read more »