RON DENNIS
CHEQUERED ACHIEVEMENTS
HIGH POINTS
Dennis rose through the ranks of motorsport team ownership, buying the struggling Mclaren team in 1981. That season, the team started winning races again, and, soon after, world titles. From persuading Porsche and Honda into F1, to aligning with sponsors like Marlboro, to introducing carbonfibre construction to the sport, Dennis was regarded by many as a revolutionary thinker.
From 1988 to 1991 Mclaren — and Honda — were the undisputed champions of F1. During that time, the team won four consecutive constructors’ titles and either Alain Prost or Ayrton Senna won the world drivers’ title each season. In 1988, Prost and Senna won 15 of the 16 races.
The creation of the Mclaren Technology Centre, the team’s futuristic Woking headquarters that opened in 2004, was key to Dennis’s vision for Mclaren. In 2011, Mclaren Automotive was launched. Today, Mclaren employs engineers working on everything from highpowered battery packs to designing Olympic bicycles.
LOW POINTS
Known as spygate, a 780page document containing sensitive data about Ferrari was discovered at the home of former Mclaren chief designer Mike Coughlan — and the sport’s governing body, the FIA, fined the team almost £50 million and stripped it of its 2007 constructors’ points. The blameless Dennis, remember, went straight to the FIA and told it about the document the moment he was informed of its existence.
Dennis has fallen out with his fair share of superstars. That Lewis Hamilton would break the bond between them was hard enough; that he’d go on to win two more world titles (to date) worse. Notable managerial fallouts led to the loss of top designer Adrian Newey, and Paddy Lowe, who joined Hamilton at Mercedes.
To be booted aside once by the team you rescued and made great would be remarkable — but twice, as has happened to Dennis in the twilight of his Mclaren years, is indicative of both his difficult personality and modern corporate cultures. Never one to back down, Dennis even went to court to try to cling to the helm of the F1 team at the end of 2016.