The future of Ron Dennis at McLaren "remains unclear as the battle for control of the Formula 1 team and automotive group continues to rage," according to SKY SPORTS.
Dennis remains McLaren CEO and group chair. Dennis, who owns 25% of the McLaren Technology Group, "has been trying
to buy back control with a Chinese consortium but the company's majority
shareholders, the Bahraini sovereign wealth fund and Saudi businessman
Mansour Ojjeh, do not want to sell." The consortium of Chinese investors
had tabled a £1.65B takeover bid which "was rejected." F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone said at the Brazilian GP that Dennis "lost a High Court case on Friday to prevent him being sidelined." Ecclestone:
"There was a court case yesterday. He wanted to overturn what happened and he lost the case unfortunately. It is a pity. We don't want to lose Ron." Dennis "had attempted to win 'an injunction against a move to place him on gardening leave until his contract expires in mid-January.'"
It is understood McLaren's major shareholders "do not want Dennis to continue in his role" of CEO with a senior insider describing the situation as "a bloodbath." McLaren F1 driver Jenson Button said,
"I don't think anyone here knows what is going on." (SKY SPORTS, 11/12). SKY NEWS' Mark Kleinman wrote tensions "have been growing" between Dennis and Ojjeh, who also holds 25%.
Both Ojjeh and Mumtalakat, the Bahraini sovereign wealth fund, which owns the remaining 50%, "believe that the Chinese bid is undesirable" and want Dennis "to step down."
News of the Chinese bid "comes seven weeks after Apple was reported to have made an approach to buy the Woking-based company" (SKY NEWS, 11/11). A potential replacement for Dennis is American Zak Brown. The outgoing group CEO of CSM Sport & Entertainment has reportedly been contacted by McLaren. In a recent interview with SBD Global, Brown neither confirmed nor denied the report. "“I’ve engaged in a number of discussions regarding my future,” Brown said. Other names circulated to replace Dennis include former Mercedes Team Principal Ross Brawn, ex-McLaren Team Principal Martin Whitmarsch and former Sainsbury's boss Justin King (HJ Mai, SBD Global).
