"Dennis ready to step aside"

[flat-planedCrank]

From autosport.com

"Ron Dennis is likely to hand over the role of McLaren team principal to F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh before the end of this month, autosport.com has learned, but has not yet decided exactly when he will do so."

>Rest of the story<

[forsure]

flat-planedCrank said:

From autosport.com

"Ron Dennis is likely to hand over the role of McLaren team principal to F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh before the end of this month, autosport.com has learned, but has not yet decided exactly when he will do so."

>Rest of the story<

Plenty of speculation everywhere about 'Spygate', pressure from MB etc.
But I wonder whether more personal issues are at stake? We don't know why his marriage is on the rocks (and, indeed, it's none of our business). But really, how much more stress can a man take?

[rupert the dog]

forsure said:

flat-planedCrank said:

From autosport.com

"Ron Dennis is likely to hand over the role of McLaren team principal to F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh before the end of this month, autosport.com has learned, but has not yet decided exactly when he will do so."

>Rest of the story<

Plenty of speculation everywhere about 'Spygate', pressure from MB etc.
But I wonder whether more personal issues are at stake? We don't know why his marriage is on the rocks (and, indeed, it's none of our business). But really, how much more stress can a man take?

I'm not a great RD fan, but I do symathise with him for the mount of crap that has been thrown his way recently, which is obviously having a detrimental effect on his personal life as well. I wouldn't blame him at all if he just decided "I don't need all this", and just walked away from it. (Although in fact I think he will find that very hard to do).

[WilliBetz]

I had some trouble warming to Ron. Perhaps unfairly (hypocritically, even) I always found his tortured relationship with the English language a bit comical. And quotes along the lines of "We're making history; you're just writing about it" did little to help, either.

But, I have to say, over the last year and a bit, his deportment and behaviour have led me to respect him, almost admire him.

A man with his integrity, dedication and resilience should not find himself in this position. For McLaren's partners and friends to stand idly by is shameful.

WilliBetz

[Derek Smith]

WilliBetz said:

I had some trouble warming to Ron. Perhaps unfairly (hypocritically, even) I always found his tortured relationship with the English language a bit comical. And quotes along the lines of "We're making history; you're just writing about it" did little to help, either.

But, I have to say, over the last year and a bit, his deportment and behaviour have led me to respect him, almost admire him.

A man with his integrity, dedication and resilience should not find himself in this position. For McLaren's partners and friends to stand idly by is shameful.

WilliBetz

Hear, hear.

I'm told he is difficult to warm to. I've always enjoyed his losing battles with English grammar and meaning. But, as you so rightly say, his conduct over 2007 was admirable and it brought shame on the way the others, both Ferrari and FIA officials, handled themselves.

I can't help thinking that if Alonso had tried to blackmail me, I would have hit him. Ron's behaviour was impeccable. But I so wish he had hit him.

[rev-erend]

It's OK - Ron has a life sized punch bag of Alonso in his gym at home.. it's easy to find - it's next to Max Moseley

[K1 CERB]

Willibetz said "A man with his integrity, dedication and resilience should not find himself in this position."

I whole heartedly agree. I have always had a respect for the professionalism of Ron. In a very cut throat world he rises above the scrapping on the floor. Sure he has his critics and his strange ways, but he is one person I admire.

K1 CERB

[CiderwithCerbie]

I think I said something like this would happen at the end of last season.
The 'stepping aside by mutual agreement' crap is reminiscent of the Premiership formulas for fired managers.
He has clearly been pushed by MB amongst others. The cost and then the loss at the end of 2007 were too much for anyone to survive. I am amazed it didn't happen/wasn't announced before now. The biggest downside has to be how much Moseley will be enjoying this.
It's a very tough sport at the top and last season was a disaster for McLaren and not the first time they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The irony is that the previous 'close but no cigar' seasons occurred because of frailties in the MB V10, twice for Raikkonen and arguably once for Hakkinen.
But hey isn't that what we have all bought into over the last twenty years Corporations before people....(discuss)?

[Dunit]

Not forgetting he was once a humble mechanic!. To build a company like Mclarens are now was truly fantastic.
As Frank Williams says he was one of the few who could stand up to the establishment.
I do hope he writes a book on his life in F1, Warts and all.

[flemke]

Derek Smith said:

WilliBetz said:

I had some trouble warming to Ron. Perhaps unfairly (hypocritically, even) I always found his tortured relationship with the English language a bit comical. And quotes along the lines of "We're making history; you're just writing about it" did little to help, either.

But, I have to say, over the last year and a bit, his deportment and behaviour have led me to respect him, almost admire him.

A man with his integrity, dedication and resilience should not find himself in this position. For McLaren's partners and friends to stand idly by is shameful.

WilliBetz

But, as you so rightly say, his conduct over 2007 was admirable and it brought shame on the way the others, both Ferrari and FIA officials, handled themselves.

In 2007, Ferrari and certain very senior person, er, persons at the FIA simply repeated and emphasised the traits that they had manifested already for many years: overwhelming selfishness, contempt for fair play, a lack of shame that pervades their every action, and sheer indifference to motor sport and its millions of supporters who have made them rich.

I understood the German logistician to have been criticising not Ron's long-standing adversaries, but rather those who were or ought to have been on his side: perhaps MB, the bigger sponsors, and one or two of the most respected constructors?
From the outside, we laymen (or at least this one) cannot know what if any pressure in support of Ron was put on the FIA. If there was any of it, it was plainly impotent.

One could not say exactly how threatening to one's commercial or sporting health Max Mosley might be, but it does appear that he is a nasty piece of work indeed.
Amongst those who might have supported McLaren, I can recall Symonds, Head, Stewart and Brundle's speaking up, but not a lot more. Hardly a great show of courage from amongst a universe of scores of very successful, wealthy people who should be old enough to know right from wrong.

One is not sure of what happened within MB, but one might reasonably have expected that any organisation that was daft enough to piss away tens of billions on Chrysler in a short space of time would sympathise with human fallibility and try to protect one of the few gems within its generally mediocre portfolio. Then again, it is not inconceivable that a certain journalist who has managed to worm his way into the bowels of MB Motorsport has been aiming to run MB's Forumla One team himself, which he could only do after Ron was out of the way.

[belleair302]

I fear that corporate greed is behind all of this, along with big business politics. Like so many entrepreneurs a company floats on the stockmarket and the moneymen go and ruin a great business. McLaren is a wonderful organisation, yes it has grown beyond just being an F1 team....hi fi, electronics, high end catering and road car engineering / manufacturing, but the success has been down to British effort and self belief. Ron however has let his baby grow up away from the concept of small and niche always wins, and by not always being aware of what is going on, may now lose control of the F1 team. he should never have sold out to M-B as he did, and he will go to his grave a wealthy man, but more sad because of his lack of acumen when dealing with accountants and bankers....who do not understand passion and engineering.

[RichB]

belleair302 said:

he will go to his grave a wealthy man, but more sad because of his lack of acumen

Lack of acumen and Ron Dennis, not something I ever thought I would see in the same sentence!

[rubystone]

flemke said:

Then again, it is not inconceivable that a certain journalist who has managed to worm his way into the bowels of MB Motorsport has been aiming to run MB's Forumla One team himself, which he could only do after Ron was out of the way.

Flemke, if we're thinking about the same person, you have got to be joking, right? That guy is a close friend of a good friend of mine and there's now way he'd either think like that nor, to be fair, be capable of running an F1 team.

Now it could be that there's more than one ex journo working for McLaren...in which case, perhaps you really have uncovered something. In truth, the only ex journo in the whole of F1 I could think of with the ability, knowledge and contacts in the industry to contemplate running a team would be Paddy McNally....and we know that he knows what side his bread is buttered on...

[rubystone]

belleair302 said:

I fear that corporate greed is behind all of this, along with big business politics. Like so many entrepreneurs a company floats on the stockmarket and the moneymen go and ruin a great business. McLaren is a wonderful organisation, yes it has grown beyond just being an F1 team....hi fi, electronics, high end catering and road car engineering / manufacturing, but the success has been down to British effort and self belief. Ron however has let his baby grow up away from the concept of small and niche always wins, and by not always being aware of what is going on, may now lose control of the F1 team. he should never have sold out to M-B as he did, and he will go to his grave a wealthy man, but more sad because of his lack of acumen when dealing with accountants and bankers....who do not understand passion and engineering.

Don't for one moment think that Ron didn't know what he was doing. He always had a vision of growing his team into the best in the world. He also had the support of Mansour Ojjeh, a very bright guy and a good businessman, with access himself to the best corporate brains in the business. As to wealth, RD was already wealthy enough before he sold out to Mercedes...he was wa ahead of the rest of the F1 world in recognising the increasing importance of the backing of a major (and blue chip) manufacturer.

FWIW I don't believe that Mercedes have pushed RD out, but I am sure that it's the accumulation of negatives that have contributed to his reviewing his future.

I look forward to his biography, for once perhaps, a book more about the individual than his achievements?

[patmahe]

This is a mistake, MB and the rest of Mclarens money men have made this happen and they'll live to regret it, Ron Dennis is one of the very top team prinicipals in the sport and has been for many years, he has kept the team going through some very rough patches and brought them back from mid field obscurity to fight at the front. The question is who can they get to replace him that will do a better job? I think this is a rash decision from the people who should be coming out praising Ron for the impeccable job he did last year with two fueding drivers and a spying scandal within the team.

Its easy to sack the top man when things are going well, but mark my words, next time there is a lull in McLarens performances it will take a lot of years (maybe a decade) to get back on top, because they pushed out the man who knows how to get a team back to winning races. Shame on the sport as a whole for bringing this situation about.

I wonder too if Rons marriage would have fallen apart if he didnt have this crap to deal with from FA and LA, Ferrari and the FIA. I hope if he does 'step aside' that he manages to put his personal life back together and live out his life happily and away from all the corruption and politics which have taken such a huge toll on him.

[WilliBetz]

flemke said:

I understood the German logistician to have been criticising not Ron's long-standing adversaries, but rather those who were or ought to have been on his side: perhaps MB, the bigger sponsors, and one or two of the most respected constructors?
From the outside, we laymen (or at least this one) cannot know what if any pressure in support of Ron was put on the FIA. If there was any of it, it was plainly impotent.

I do think we can consider separately the actions of the various parties, and focus on Ron and McLaren.

My presumption is that Ron did not act in isolation last season. Rather, that he would have formulated an approach to take with the FIA through discussion with his board and other stakeholders, and gained their support before mounting his robust defence.

If they supported him then, they should support him now.

WilliBetz

[rubystone]

WilliBetz said:

If they supported him then, they should support him now.

WilliBetz

But who is saying that they are not supporting him? He is his own man and has always said he'd put McLaren's interests first - that's what he is doing here - he seems to think this is a necessary action in order to focus the team on what they should be focussing on - winning the world championship....I wonder whether I've quoted that press release accurately

[WilliBetz]

He doesn't strike me as the kinda guy to leave voluntarily with unfinished business.

If I'm wrong I'm wrong, but rumours of him being fired or pushed resonate more with me.

Though I did wonder if he'd taken over as head of PR, on reading that "the status quo remains the same"

[heebeegeetee]

Apparently the Modena police released details of information found in Rons house, before they raided it! The timing of the raid, 2 weeks before the start of the season, is also clearly orchestrated.

You've got to hand it to Ferrari. Not only do they control the FIA but also the police in their town too! They're gonna take some beating.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/s...

>>Surprise turned to anger yesterday as sensational reports in an Italian newspaper, quoting police sources in Italy, suggested that the evidence turned up in the raid linked McLaren's high command to the unauthorised use of Ferrari information.

McLaren's outrage was fuelled by the fact that the material taken in the search by the Surrey police has yet to be released to the Italian authorities. McLaren are planning to take their complaint to the Home Office, the department of state that authorised Wednesday's Surrey police operation.<<

Edited by heebeegeetee on Wednesday 5th March 13:34

[heebeegeetee]

Apparently the Modena police released details of information found in Rons house, before they raided it! The timing of the raid, 2 weeks before the start of the season, is also clearly orchestrated.

You've got to hand it to Ferrari. Not only do they control the FIA but also the police in their town too! They're gonna take some beating.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/s...

>>Surprise turned to anger yesterday as sensational reports in an Italian newspaper, quoting police sources in Italy, suggested that the evidence turned up in the raid linked McLaren's high command to the unauthorised use of Ferrari information.

McLaren's outrage was fuelled by the fact that the material taken in the search by the Surrey police has yet to be released to the Italian authorities. McLaren are planning to take their complaint to the Home Office, the department of state that authorised Wednesday's Surrey police operation.<<