Ron Dennis and Prodrive

[cosworth151]

I've been seeing some interesting rumours floating around the web about McLaren & Prodrive.
First, the rumour that Ron Dennis & Mansour Ojjeh have given Daimler Chrysler a deadline to buy their shares of McLaren, or they will sell to someone else.
Second, David Richards is trying to cut a deal to buy Aston Martin from Ford. He is supposed to have a deal with an Egyptian bank.
Third, that Dennis and Ojjeh are looking to buy Prodrive from Richards.
Finally, that Richards is trying to buy customer engines and chassis from Daimler Chrysler!

This seems to all be going in a circle. Anybody heard anything else about it? It will be fun to see how it all sorts out.

[cosworth151]

I've just read two different reports that D/C is talking to Ross Brawn about running McLaren if they do buy it out.

This could get very interesting.

[davewilson]

Brawn to Ferrari and Dennis to Prodrive?
It is without doubt that Ross Brawn is one of the massive successes behind Ferrari's running streak in Formula 1, and it is yet to be seen how his year out as their Technical Director is going to affect the team. However there's a few stories flying around that he may not return to the role, and may not even return to the team.

This week we heard that Brawn had confirmed that there was an option to return to Ferrari as the team boss next year, and that he's ruled out returning as Technical Director. That really is a blow for the team as he was a superb strategist, perhaps the best in the sport.

What would be worse is if the team lost him altogether, and in a rumour that surfaced just the other day it seems that there might be an opening for him on another team. First let's look at him not returning as Technical Director.

When speaking with the German magazine Auto Motor Und Sport he said:


"Ferrari gave me so much that it is only fair if I speak first with them...If I return, I need a new challenge."


That comment through Autosport.com makes it pretty clear that he doesn't want to walk back in as the Technical Director, he wants something more and that may well be the Team boss.

However a rumour has popped up on some F1 sites, which suggests that there may be another team interested in his talents. According to UpdateF1 Brawn is also being linked with a possible move to the McLaren team.


Ron Dennis
McLaren Now you have to put a heavy rumour tag on this story as there are no confirmed sources or verification to the story, however the German publication Sport Bild claims that the McLaren team might be looking for a successor for Ron Dennis.

Dennis is being linked with a possible move to Prodrive. This comes after he sold half his personal stake in McLaren to a Bahrain Company, and now the company behind Mercedes, DaimlerChrysler, is looking to buy the remaining stake from him.


David Richards
ProdriveAll this is of course conjecture, but it's made stronger by the possibility that David Richards Prodrive team is going to use McLaren cars and a Mercedes engine next year (note that this would be another customer car).

So put all this together and we have Dennis moving to Prodrive to help them with their McLaren and Mercedes integration, Brawn being offered Dennis' position at McLaren, and a large gap opening up at Ferrari's Technical team.

Currently that gap is being filled by two people. Mario Almondo is taking Brawn's role but has stated that he may not actually turn up to races, he believes that the preparation is the key. It is actually Luca Baldisseri who will be making the pit wall decisions that Brawn was so famous for, all those last minute decisions during a race which are so heavily influenced by all the other teams.

Behind the scenes there are more key personnel changes this year, including Jean Todt taking the CEO role, and the speculation is that the key people who made the team so strong are all leaving Ferrari behind.

Keep watching this space.

The Stig