imc27

I read Mark Hughes' report of events in Motor Sport, and it seems that the rift between the various parties stems from the Nigel Stepney incident involving secret documents and a copying shop which gave the FIA (under Max Mosley at the time) cause to smite McLaren with an almighty fine, and which may have had the side-effect of scaring off potential sponsors and/or investors. There is also the implication that Ron didn't win himself too many admirers with the boardroom coup which removed Martin Whitmarsh while Mansour Ojjeh was hovering between life and death having had (from memory) a lung transplant.

To alienate Ron's former long term friend and ally Ojjeh, must have taken a catastrophic breakdown in the relationship between the two. The upshot is that Ojjeh, a 25% shareholder and Mumtalakat, the Bahraini Royal Family's Sovereign wealth fund, which controls 50% of the shares, have decided that McLaren's future does not include the allegedly rather taciturn and abrasive Dennis.

While it's easy to feel some sympathy for Ron, seen by many as the public face of McLaren and as a result widely believed to be the principal architect of the Group's success, there's no smoke without fire, and for matters to have reached this particularly significant point the breakdown in relationships between the interested parties appears to be irretrievable.

This, as the saying goes, will run and run.

mikey k

Yep I suspect he overstepped the mark a few to many times. It will be interesting to see who they replace him with where that goes.

imc27

Zak Brown, it would appear. Described as a "marketing guru", and has been around F1 for a while. Meanwhile, Ron Dennis retains his shareholdings.