Martin Brundle expects Ron Dennis to leave F1 team at end of 2016
Wednesday 16 November 2016 12:49, UK
Sky F1's Martin Brundle believes Ron Dennis will leave McLaren at the end of the season.
The future of Dennis, McLaren's chairman and chief executive, has been at the centre of speculation after reports suggested the 69-year-old is poised to cut his ties with the F1 team amid tension with fellow shareholders.
And Brundle, a former McLaren driver and long-time associate of Dennis, predicted during Sky F1's US GP coverage: "I think Ron will leave the team."
Dennis is the architect of the modern McLaren and during his tenure as team principal, between 1981 and 2009, won 10 Drivers' and seven Constructors' Championships.
After handing over the reins to Martin Whitmarsh following Lewis Hamilton's 2008 title win, Dennis returned as CEO in 2014 and oversaw a management restructure which resulted in the departure of his successor.
Dennis owns 25 per cent of the McLaren Technology Group but reports of disagreements with long-time business partner Mansour Ojjeh, who has the same equity share, and Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund, which owns 50 per cent, have swirled for some time.
Responding to the reports of his impending departure earlier this week, a McLaren spokesman said Dennis had stated "categorically that he is not stepping down". Dennis also told Sky F1 at the Japanese GP earlier this month he had no intention of retiring.
But Brundle believes Dennis's fellow shareholders want to go in a different direction.
"It's a very big business and Ron has created that and he's an incredibly creative man," he added.
"But there seems to have been some friction and there seems to be a new direction they want to go in. I don't know who they've got in mind and which elements of McLaren they will make changes, and whether they will restructure. We'll have to wait and see."
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