RE: Ron Dennis steps down from McLaren

[Eric Mc]

Like Bernie did with Brabham.

[rubystone]

Rovnumpty said:

Don't know about Ron's personal problems, or his management style, but always think it's a shame when this type of thing happens in a succesful company.

I'm sure the profits and share price will go up over the next couple of years as the company is bled dry by those who did the ousting, while shouting about what a great job they've done. In reality, the company will probably be sold on, broken up or left to die as the person who created it, knew how to keep the gears spinning, and knew where all the skeletons were is now no longer involved.

I don't follow F1 much these days, but I think Ron's problems started with the mercedes tie up. He thought he was getting an engine supplier along the lines of cosworth - someone he could keep at arms length, while still getting engines for his F1 cars and his road car ambitions. Frank Williams thought he was getting the same from BMW. He woke up go the reality a bit quicker than Ron did - these companies couldn't stomach playing second fiddle to 'garagistas' in the F1 spotlight long term.

the resulting divorce between Mclaren and mercedes was long winded and probably messy internally. Martin Whitmarsh got the bullet for assuming they'd get the same treatment from mercedes as a customer as a factory team. They didn't, and very quickly fell away in the standings. Ron was too busy with the road cars to stop the rot quick enough.

Ironically, the success of Mclaren as whole under his leadership is the reason he's been ousted. Way too much money now involved in the company. The poor performance of the F1 team has provided his enemies with a lever to get rid of him.

If I was Ron, I'd be flogging my 25% to the highest bidder and walking away with my millions, while laughing at the mess mclaren becomes.

In both cases, I think that Mercedes and BMW automatically thought that the relationship would segue into a factory team. When they saw the writing in the wall they looked elsewhere.

Whitmarsh wasn't fired because of the fact they were playing second fiddle to the factory team; discussions were well underway with Honda at that point.

[anonymous-user]

Eric Mc said:

Like Bernie did with Brabham.

Brabham was just a foot in the door to power for Bernie, it was effectively Gordon Murrays team, Bernie had his sights on bigger things.

McLaren International and eventually the expanded group was what drove Ron.

[Eric Mc]

jsf said:

Brabham was just a foot in the door to power for Bernie, it was effectively Gordon Murrays team, Bernie had his sights on bigger things.

I'm not sure these "bigger things" were in Bernie's mind at the time he bought Brabham. Bernie was an opportunist rather than a master planner. He didn't set out to "rule the world" of F1. But he spotted opportunities as they arose and turned them to his advantage very effectively.

He dropped Brabham when he decided he wanted to spend his time doing other things.

[rubystone]

Eric Mc said:

I'm not sure these "bigger things" were in Bernie's mind at the time he bought Brabham. Bernie was an opportunist rather than a master planner. He didn't set out to "rule the world" of F1. But he spotted opportunities as they arose and turned them to his advantage very effectively.

He dropped Brabham when he decided he wanted to spend his time doing other things.

Yes, totally opportunistic. Bernie picked the team up at a good price but to his credit then invested in it. I don't think it was ever Murray's team; he was a race engineer there initially, wasn't he? Ultimately Tauranac wasn't as good at running a team as Jack, and indeed Bernie was.

[knowitall]

jsf said:

Brabham was just a foot in the door to power for Bernie, it was effectively Gordon Murrays team, Bernie had his sights on bigger things.

Huh?

It was Ron Tauranac's team. Bernie purchased it from Tauranac - Gordon Murray was just an employee. After Bernie bought it he made Murray the chief designer. But Bernie is a control freak and always made the decisions (obviously not technical). To say that it was effectively Murray's team and that Bernie didn't control it with an iron fist and let Murray effectively run the team is laughable.

Edited by knowitall on Saturday 26th November 11:10

[anonymous-user]

You should talk to Gordon, Bernie fired all the old Brabham management after the first year and put Murray in charge of the whole team. All Bernie did in that period of time at Brabham was sort the money.

[rubystone]

jsf said:

You should talk to Gordon, Bernie fired all the old Brabham management after the first year and put Murray in charge of the whole team. All Bernie did in that period of time at Brabham was sort the money.

My assumption was that the respondent's comment on Murray was related to when Ron owned the team, not after that. If one reads the post, it certainly points to that. And that certainly wasn't the case when Ron ran it. Under Bernie? I'd buy the fact that Gordon had much more influence but Bernie did make the big decisions...e.g. Withdrawing the fan car. Arguably he planted Whiting and Blash in positions where they could oversee it. Fast forward to the present day and guess what....

[anonymous-user]

I thought it would be obvious we were talking about Brabham post Bernie buying it, sorry if that wasn't the case.

[carinaman]

Reference to Ron steering McLaren onto the rocks:

http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/opinion/f1/roebu...

Roebuck is going to retire?

[tyrrell]

No he is going back to Autosport.