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November 17, 2016

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Dennis forced out of F1鈥檚 McLaren after 35 years

RON Dennis has been forced out as chairman and chief executive of McLaren, bringing to an end the Briton’s 35-year involvement with one of Formula One’s top teams.

The 69-year-old relinquished his duties on Tuesday following a decision by the majority shareholders to place him on ‘gardening leave’ until his contract expires in mid-January.

McLaren said in a statement that Dennis, who has a 25 percent stake in the McLaren Technology Group, would remain a shareholder and director.

It added that McLaren “will be run on an interim basis by an Executive Committee comprising the Group’s majority shareholders” until a new CEO was appointed.

US marketing executive Zak Brown, former head of CSM Sport & Entertainment, who has brought numerous top sponsors into Formula One, has already been linked to the job in paddock speculation.

Dennis said he was disappointed the shareholders had “forced through this decision... despite the strong warnings from the rest of the management team about the potential consequences of their actions on the business”.

A Sky News report last week said that Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, which owns 50 percent, and Saudi-born businessman Mansour Ojjeh, the CEO of TAG who holds the remaining 25 percent, wanted Dennis out. It said an unidentified consortium of Chinese investors had made a 1.65-billion pound (US$2.05 billion) takeover bid for McLaren Technology Group that Dennis supported but the other shareholders opposed.

Dennis, with McLaren since 1980, is one of F1’s leading lights. He stood down as team principal in 2009 but returned as group chief executive in January 2014. The team last won a race in 2012.


 

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