Ron Dennis: 43 Years in Motor Racing

Ron Dennis worked in motor racing for 43 years.

His start was in 1966, as a mechanic for the Cooper team, working with the driver Jochen Rindt amongst others. When Rindt moved to the Brabham team for the 1968 season, he took Dennis with him.

Photo right: Dennis with Jochen Rindt

After just one season with Brabham, Rindt moved to Lotus, where he was to fulfill his destiny of becoming F1's only posthumous world champion.

Dennis stayed with the Brabham team, becoming Jack Brabham's mechanic for the final two years of the great Australian's racing career.

Jack Brabham retired from racing at the end of the 1970, and in 1971 the team he had founded was sold to Bernie Ecclestone.

Ron Dennis moved on, and with fellow ex-Brabham mechanic Neil Trundle formed Rondel racing. Rondel competed in F2 for four years before Dennis struck out on his own with the Project Two team. Neil Trundle remained a friend, however.

Sponsored by tobacco firm Philip Morris, makers of Marlboro cigarettes, Dennis formed the Project Three and Project Four teams, achieving considerable success in F2 and F3 during the late 1970s.

Philip Morris were also sponsoring the McLaren F1 team at that time, and were seeing poor results, not having landed a championship since James Hunt won the driver's title in 1975. To turn McLaren round, in 1980 Philip Morris organised a takeover by Project Four.

A reminder of that takeover is that to this day McLaren F1 cars have model designations beginning with MP4, the 2009 car is MP4-24. MP4 originally stood for Marlboro Project Four, although today the company says it means McLaren Project Four. Dennis was able to buy out the other McLaren shareholders in 1981 and became team principal, a role he held for 28 years.

Designer John Barnard also came to McLaren from Project Four, and he set about designing the first chassis made of carbon composites. That chassis, the MP4/2 was the forerunner of all today's F1 cars.

When Barnard's chassis was mated to the TAG-branded engine built by Porsche, McLaren embarked on a new golden age.

Photo right: Prost, Dennis, Lauda

Dennis achieved his first constructors title with McLaren in 1984, with his driver Niki Lauda winning the WDC. The following year, McLaren again won the drivers (Alain Prost) and constructors championships.

In 1986. Prost won his second driver title, while there was a respite from dominance in 1987.

1988 saw Honda switch their engine supply to McLaren, and they crushed all opposition in that year, winning 15 of 16 races to take the constructors title with a remarkable 199 points. Ayrton Senna won his first F1 title that year, and was to score his other two championships in Honda-powered McLarens.

Photo: Senna and Dennis

When Honda made one of their periodic withdrawals from F1 after the 1992 season, Dennis was caught without a competitive engine, and entered a long bleak phase of his career. McLaren ran with Ford power in 1993, and with Peugot engines in 1994.

In 1995, Mercedes came into the picture.

Mercedes did not have an F1 engine operation. Ilmor engineering produced the Mercedes F1 engine in Brixworth, England, and were eventually bought out by the German company.

It could not be said that the partnership of McLaren and Mercedes has been hugely successful. Mika Hakkinen scored his two F1 drivers titles with them in 1998/99, and Lewis Hamilton added a third in 2008. But they have only achieved one F1 constructors title, so it must be fair to suspect that Mercedes' racing boss Norbert Haug is disappointed with the deal he negotiated for his employers.

As I write this in April 2009, McLaren would be very much an outside bet for honours this season, and faces the distinct prospect of a severe FIA penalty for the "liegate" affair. In this turbulent time, Ron Dennis has announced that he has stepped back from the F1 team.

And the future?

I have not read that Dennis has given up his shareholding in McLaren. A man who has "stepped back" can always step forward, but that does seem unlikely.

There are people who have been involved in motor racing for longer than Ron Dennis; none of them can beat his achievements as a team principal. Whatever he does now, Dennis should ensure the following will be inscribed on his tombstone:

Ten F1 Drivers World Championships
Seven F1 Constructors World Championships
Beat that, buddy.

Ron Dennis worked in motor racing for 43 years. I shall miss him.