11/07/2017
NEWS STORY
With Ron Dennis having been effectively bought out of McLaren in a deal which saw the Briton's 25% stake in the company snapped up for £275m, the way is cleared for McLaren to take a seat on the board of F1's parent company, Delta Topco, alongside Ferrari and Mercedes.
The purchase of Dennis' shares in McLaren brought to an end years of bitter wrangling at Woking between the Briton and fellow shareholders Mansour Ojjeh and Mumtalakat, the Bahraini sovereign wealth fund.
Indeed, the feud was reportedly an obstacle to McLaren taking a seat on the board when it was offered in 2012 as part of the deal aimed at convincing the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes to commit their futures to the sort.
While the Italian and German teams were quick to accept the offer, McLaren was a 'no-show, with Bernie Ecclestone admitting in 2014 that "McLaren could have a director if they made their mind up".
According to The Independent, company documents released on Friday by Liberty Media reveal that McLaren still hasn’t appointed a director.
"Agreements with McLaren and Mercedes grant the corporate parent of each of those teams (McLaren Group Limited and Daimler AG, respectively) the right to appoint a team director. Ferrari has an equivalent right... Each of Daimler AG and Ferrari has exercised the relevant right and appointed a team director," the documents reveal.
Though Dennis' departure would appear to clear the way for McLaren to join the board, The Independent quotes a source close to the team as saying: "I don’t think McLaren has made any decisions on it yet."
In the wake of Dennis' buy-out, McLaren opted to unify McLaren Automotive and the McLaren Technology Group as the McLaren Group, and it has since emerged that the company is seeking around £500m in funding in order to pay for Dennis shares and further grow the company.
McLaren had total revenue of £898m last year, and the share sale points to a valuation of £2.4bn.
Sadly, the success of the company's fiscal endeavours is not currently being reflected on the race track.