Well Ron Dennis is getting the MacLaren team geared up for his retirement move. All the signs seem to be pointing in that direction.
The big news is that Bahrain’s Mumtalakat Holding Company has bought 30 per cent of the team. That 30 per cent is split between two parts that were owned by Ron Dennis and Saudi investor, Mansour Ojjeh. The new ownership structure means that Dennis and Ojjeh now own 15 per cent each, the Bahrain company owns 30 per cent and DaimlerChrysler 40 per cent.
Dennis and Ojjeh reported netted about 100 million US dollars for their 15 per cent shares which actually seems to be on the low side of what the team should be worth.
So what does it all mean. Well Dennis has kept hinting and joking that he wants to retire. Really he wants to leave the day to day operations to someone else. He just wants to hang out at the races and enjoy the good live something that he deserves after all his hardwork. Let everyone else worry. One problem. He does not want to retire a loser and he’s pretty much said that in interviews.
He has now set up the team to win this season. Alonso is the man to get the job done and Dennis made sure he got his man. Plus he said that the Maclaren team will debt free by sometime this season. Alonso’s just keeps attracting new sponsors to the team so I’m sure that timeline will be meet very quickly. So he’s set everything up to win on the track and leave the team in a great business shape.
Now he just needs everyone on the team to deliver the goods on race day.