Mclaren have found their Ron Dennis replacement. According to sky news the marketing expert Zak Brown has signed a deal with the Woking based firm.
Within the week official statements should be made in which McLaren will explain how the 45-year old Brown is set to take a job as a senior executive, effectively replacing Ron Dennis. Even when Sky’s sources do not say that the contract is for that job, we all know how McLaren is searching for a Chief executive officer since a week.
Zak Brown has been rumoured to get job offers by both McLaren and Liberty Media, the new owner of the commercial rights of Formula One. And it is now suspected that he told Liberty Media he had the intention of opting for the McLaren offer.
Update: McLaren have confirmed the news, as of December Zak Brown will be their new executive director. But McLaren also confirm that the process of recruiting a new ‘group chief executive officer’ is still on-going. Just as their big plans to restructure the whole group. Chief operating officer Jonathan Neale will join forces with Brown to coordinate this overhaul. Brown is expected to use his knowledge and skills in his field of expertise, namely his marketing and sponsorship deal skills. He already brought several sponsorship deals to McLaren with his sport- marketing firm ‘Just Marketing’ which are: Johnnie Walker, GSK, Hilton, Lenovo, Chandon and NNT.
Ron Dennis, who got the boot just last week, on the other hand is considering weather he should or should not pull his fellow McLaren shareholders in to court for a damages claim. Earlier there were reports that the removal of Dennis would cost McLaren up to 185 million Euro of sponsorship fees, according to McLaren executives. Money which McLaren can’t actually do without if you ask me. With the arrival of the new regulations for 2017 this was perhaps a wrong move. Or at least a bit too soon. Only time will tell, but I’m not quite sure McLaren fans will enjoy this rough patch their team is enduring.
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interesting times for McLaren indeed Bruznic…kinda feel sorry for Big Ron, but then, the situation is largely of his own making.
Though with a heading like that I thought you must surely mean Stoffel 😉
That’s why I kept the title a bit shady 😂
McLaren’s problem isn’t marketing – it’s they can’t win or even appear competitive. And I don’t see how Zak Brown is going to fix that. Ron Dennis has an abrasive personality, made mistakes and burned bridges with a lot of people. But he does understand both the technical and business side of F1. The big worry for McLaren is that unless Honda start producing a competitive engine , I sense Honda will pack up and go home and McLaren will slide into mediocrity the same way Williams have.
Agree. Ron did it to himself but then again Macca needs Ron. Because he does know what he is doing. This Brown business is the same as Ferrari did with Arrivabene’s arrival. Someone with good skills but on different territories is in charge (or will be) of something they don’t really understand (enough)
It’s not the Group CEOs job to fix that. McLaren Racing have a CEO already – that is his job
McLaren’s essence comes from it’s F1 involvement. Without F1 it’s just another bland technology company. Dennis understands that, so does Marchionne at Ferrari. I don’t think McLaren’s current management does.
The reason McLaren has the shareholders it has is entirely down to brand association. I see no reason at all to think they do not recongnise the valuve of F1 every bit as well as Marchionne does.
These are not people looking to make more money for the sake of making money
Ultimately McLaren’s problem is they, regardless of their size and history, are privateers and are at the whim of the manufacturers. In my opinion, the biggest mistake Dennis made recently was not developing his own engine. He went through that once before when Honda pulled out and he had to scrape by with a Ford and then Peugeot engine. If Honda pull out again Mclaren will have to go begging to Ferrari, M-B or Renault, and I don’t see any of them helping Mclaren out. In fact I think the future for McLaren looks pretty bleak.
On top of that he was wrong to use his veto against Honda when they wanted a second team. Imo his downfall began there.
Did I miss something?? How is Ron leaving going to cost McLaren 185million in sponsorship??
Did they just sign a big sponsor contingent on him being at the helm?
Perhaps there is more than meets the eye. We’re talking about a multi million business.
Yup, but where did you get the number of 185 million?