Ron Dennis replaces Martin Whitmarsh as CEO in coup

If the guy is so bad at his job as all the armchair experts and critics are saying and one even saying he has grossly mismanaged the team then you would have to lay the blame squarely of the feet of Ron Dennis for not getting rid of him years ago you could even say that Ron Dennis or the board has been grossly negligent in this respect if that is the case that is, after all if a bloke ain't up to the job then that is hardly his fault is it? It is the people that fill the post to make sure that the best man for the job is hired and if he doesn't come up to scratch then they are the ones who are to blame. of course I don't know as I am not part of the McLaren Group and have no idea what their corporate structure and policies are for all I know MW may be just a face to stick in front of the camera and has no real influence at all, much like the American president or our Queen...
 
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I don't think Martin was ever CEO of McLaren Group - only of McLaren Racing. He is (or was) COO of McLaren Group.

It's interesting (well, quite interesting zzz) that in the last few days Mansour Ojjeh handed his directorship of McLaren Group to his brother Aziz on a temporary basis. Wonder if this has any bearing on what's been happening, though it's more likely they're just making changes all at once.
 
You know what, I am going to reserve judgement until more is revealed. A new TP may be a good idea for the team, or not. I did not think Martin was too bad, although he did not get the results, and now seems to have lost the confidence of his board, which would indicate that they think they would be better off with someone else in charge, also fine by me.

I do have to think to myself, though, that even Adrian Newey (he of the 4 in a row Red Bull, and the 3 in a row Williams) could not manage a sustained period of success at McLaren, and the sporadic and limited successes between 1999 and now would indicate that there may be something deeper seated than just a poor TP (judgement reserved)

Maybe the link up with Honda will help. Maybe a new TP will bring with him additional knowledge, and understanding. Only if they are allowed to run things their way? I think so.

Red Bull work from an industrial unit in an uninspiring corner of Milton Keynes. Their workbenches have bits all over them, the floors are lino, slightly scuffed, and certainly not surgically clean. people walk around in jeans and trainers. their trophy cabinet if fucking huge.

Please note, I am not saying that I think MW is great, nor am I saying he is crap, however, I think that in either case, Ron taking over the helm is, in and of itself no indication of things looking up.

No, I think that will take a little more than the old master taking over again.

I await further announcements with anticipation.
 
At present Ron Dennis has regained control of McLaren Racing by regaining the position of CEO. He has stated significant changes will be made but doesn't intend returning to the pitwall himself. There is rumor of the position being offered to Ross Brawn but for the next month at least Martin Whitmarsh remains Team Principle. Although Jenson Button appears to have had a good relationship with Martin Whitmarsh, if Ross Brawn was to take over as Principle I'm sure Jenson would be very happy to have the opportunity of working with him again.
 
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I don't see the point of possibly changing the Team Principle. Ron Dennis didn't win a championship for nearly a decade (1999- 2008), although he had some very clever people working for his team at the time. Adrian Newey, Neil Oatley, Tim Goss, Pat Fry, Paddy Lowe and the MTC was built under his supervision. What did they achieve in all that time? Nothing, they always came close to winning a championship, nothing more. Let's face it, the championship in 1999 hadn't been theirs either, if Schumacher hadn't had the crash.....anyway they won it.
Ron Dennis then handed the team to Whitmarsh, after they had built an uncompetitive car, they managed to resolve many issues then, and the next two years, they carried on as usual. This season has been a disaster but surely not Whitmarshs fault alone.

What McLaren need to change, and that is were I have a small issue with Ron Dennis, is how they approach a motor race, I feel the human component is missing, they, from the outside, seem to be far too reliant on computer data, instead of using their own brains or guts, when needed.
 
If the guy is so bad at his job as all the armchair experts and critics are saying and one even saying he has grossly mismanaged the team then you would have to lay the blame squarely of the feet of Ron Dennis for not getting rid of him years ago you could even say that Ron Dennis or the board has been grossly negligent in this respect if that is the case that is, after all if a bloke ain't up to the job then that is hardly his fault is it? It is the people that fill the post to make sure that the best man for the job is hired and if he doesn't come up to scratch then they are the ones who are to blame. of course I don't know as I am not part of the McLaren Group and have no idea what their corporate structure and policies are for all I know MW may be just a face to stick in front of the camera and has no real influence at all, much like the American president or our Queen...

You're saying that the CEO of McLaren Racing may have no influence over the performance of McLaren Racing. Go take a hike! Have no tolerance for people who make excuses for non performance as you're doing.
 
At present Ron Dennis has regained control of McLaren Racing by regaining the position of CEO. He has stated significant changes will be made but doesn't intend returning to the pitwall himself. There is rumor of the position being offered to Ross Brawn but for the next month at least Martin Whitmarsh remains Team Principle. Although Jenson Button appears to have had a good relationship with Martin Whitmarsh, if Ross Brawn was to take over as Principle I'm sure Jenson would be very happy to have the opportunity of working with him again.

Exactly. What we are seeing here is a major shareholder re-exerting control on a company which is struggling under an ineffective Team Principal (yes that's how its spelt Mephistopheles not the way you spelt it which seems to have caught on among several others here).
 
It seems to me that McLaren's main "downfall" has been it's over reliance on their incredible "mission control" and the seemingly conservative and cautious pit-wall. All too often their strategy errors appear to have been the result of an inability to adapt to changing circumstances in the heat of battle. To me it is no coincidence that their best results in 2007 and 2008 came from their drivers Alonso and Hamilton when they were either being a tad rebellious or on the odd occasion let of the leash. How close Hamilton came to losing the WDC in Brazil because of their over cautious approach is just one example I can think of but there are others almost too numerous to mention.

Whether or not one can lay the blame at Whitmarsh's door is certainly contentious but one has to wonder how and why things had to get so bad before the McLaren organisation woke up to the fact that they have a real problem.

I notice that Plutus has alluded to the computerised mission control issue whilst I was typing this but I post anyway.
 
Well, the job of the board is to ensure the performance of the business. I appreciate that in the role of CEO of McLaren racing that Martin would have been more difficult to remove than a football manager, however, not an impossible task.

I would add that other than a poor handover in 2009 the last few years have not been as bad as they could have been, 2012 could have been better, however, 2013 was poor. If as has been stated, McLarens position is near the front, then last season is the only season they have not managed this under MW, and I would think that would stand for results over time (since the 90's era) notwithstanding a couple of blips in 98, 99 and 08.

If anything has done it for MW, it would be last year.
 
Fenderman - If I recall, Brazil 2008 was a case of McLaren's strategy being vindicated. Toyota took the gamble and got it wrong, McLaren got it right (narrowly) but get it right they did. It was only being outraced by some kid named Vettel in the wet.

In fact, their rain tactics aren't too bad; they won lots of wet races...
 
I think that the main problem for most teams since 2009 has been Red Bull spanking them in almost every area. I think also, that the extreme level of scrutiny that McLaren have been under over the last few years has also done nothing to diminish the impact of their errors. Indeed, whilst not wishing to understate the impact of their issues, I can think of many teams making similar errors without being lambasted in quite the same way.

I mean, I would not say that Ferrari have done any better a job over the last few years (from 2009 onwards) yet the calls for Domenicali's head seem to be very sparse.
 
You're right, The Pits. If we were to do a Championship using the 25-18-15 points system of WCC finishes in the EBD era:

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McLaren, Ferrari and the Ross Brawn Marching Band are quite frankly as near as damn it. In fact, this hardly suggests that Brawn is the magic bullet McLaren fans were hoping for. Maybe they should hire Christian Horner. :yes::no:
 
Whitmarsh clearly benefited from a lot of protection from the board and Ron was kept at arm's length. It is an open secret that Ron has been trying to wrestle back control of the F1 side of things for a while and whether it was Mansour Ojjeh's unfortunate health issues or MW's continued failures that opened the door is yet to be seen. Or perhaps it was the futile attempts to hire Alonso and the subtle PR digs that got Ron's goat. In any case, the buck stops with Whitmarsh and he's been responsible for a number of critical failures, from misplaced priorities in 2012 to the hasty decision to hire Perez and then proceed to undermine his confidence with some poor man management. 2013 was the inevitable result of poor leadership and the writing was one the wall from the moment Whitmarsh sanctioned the dreadful decision to throw a way a perfectly good car in favor of a new platform.
 
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Someone has to pick the McLaren team up by the scruff of the neck and give it a damn good shake, and, a kick up the backside. Nice guy Whitmarsh is not the man for the job. You really need a Mr Nasty (RD looking good in that role), or someone very cool and efficient (RB looking good for that one).
 
In my opinion, I think the dude gets unfair criticism.

2009, can he be blamed for that? Don't think so, still made a rapid recovery nevertheless.

2010, the teams best season under him, don't remember many mistakes from that season at all, pushed all the way for both championships with the third best car.

2011, second best team after they looked to be nowhere until their revised package in the first race, one driver went AWOL, still picked up 5 wins in a Red Bull dominated year.

2012, they had some mistakes on the pitwall, and pitstops, both got resolved, their main downfall was the reliability on one car.

2013, poor, but if the designers think the previous seasons car had reached it's peak then he's got to go with it, was always going to be a hit or miss with a new car.

Hiring Perez was probably the biggest mistake, but then can we really say that? Not a fan of his at all but he was only given one season to prove himself in a car that was their worst ever I think. Add to that it was only after Perez signed for McLaren that Hulkenberg picked up his form and Perez's dropped.
 
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