November’s edition of Motor Sport is a McLaren special, looking back at the Woking team’s time under Ron Dennis.
Dennis took control before the 1981 season, with John Watson winning the British Grand Prix that year, the team’s first victory since 1977. McLaren went on to win seven Constructors’ and 10 Drivers’ Championships under Ron’s stewardship, there was plenty to tell Simon Taylor when he got a rare chance to sit down with him for this month’s ‘Lunch with…’
Dennis worked with some of the best drivers in the history of the sport, starting with Niki Lauda, whom he coaxed out of retirement in 1982. After the Austrian’s low-key first test with McLaren, Ron said: “I was expecting him to take at least a couple of weeks to make his decision, but as we were going back down the M1 from Donington in pouring rain, Niki suddenly said, ‘Yup, I’ll do it.’ A few months later he won his third race for us at Long Beach.”
Lauda ended up taking the title in 1984, beating team-mate Alain Prost by half a point. “The thing about Niki,” says Ron “was that he brought a mental and physical discipline to the job of being a driver that few other drivers had in those days. He taught me, indirectly by observation, how to get an edge by being always totally focused.”
As for the Prost/Senna era, he remains quite understated. It is, after all, a story that has been done to death recently, but Ron gives an insight into his management of the duo. “We had a test at that little Welsh circuit, Pembrey. I flew down in a helicopter, sat them in the back of a hired VW Kombi van, and got very tough with them. In the end they had their arms around each other, begging each other’s forgiveness. That created peace for a time until, as always, one of them couldn’t help himself.”
Senna’s personality and drive were undoubtedly two of the main components of his success, but clearly the team needed to think a bit harder about how to manage these traits than with most drivers. “Ayrton was always very intense, very uptight. He had his own strong values and principles, and he always felt he was fighting the whole world. I conspired with Gerhard [Berger] to make him have some fun.
“With Gerhard’s practical jokes there were no limits – throwing briefcases out of helicopters, stuff like that. That kept breaking the ice. It would always freeze over again, and then we’d think of another way to break it once more.”
Ron is less willing to talk openly about McLaren’s current drivers, but during the team’s last truly dominant era – the late ‘90s – he had two that he is clearly very fond of.
“Mika [Häkkinen] was the most loyal driver in the history of McLaren. As for David, as well as everything else he is such a thoroughly decent human being. When he and his girlfriend were in that dreadful plane crash, when the two pilots were killed, we spirited them away to my house in the South of France, kept them away from the media, and then a week later we were in Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix. We did a short media conference to say, ‘Please respect that he doesn’t want to talk about the accident.’ He qualified fourth and finished second, to give us a McLaren 1-2. I was amazed by his strength and his discipline.”
What comes across in this interview is that Ron Dennis cares about racing and about people more than many racing fans would give him credit for. He posed the question himself: “Do I feel pain when we don’t win a race? Yes, acute pain. But that pain is 90 per cent the racer in me…”
Why is Ron eating off a placemat? Don’t they have plates at McLaren?
I wonder if he felt pain when Dave Ryan was terminated after years and years of faithful service?
I don’t know Ron;however what he has done is truly amazing from mechanic to Team Owner. He , through his leadership has raised the standard in F1 in many levels and he continues to do so. Building Paragon and seeing the video clips of that facility and how he preserves the heritage of the Team shows the guy cares and is visionary. His latest move to build more production sports cars makes brilliant sense. They will pick up the fight where Colin Chapman left off. Hats off to him and his people. From a loyal Ketteringham Hall Team Lotus Fan.
There is no doubt that what Ron has achieved at/with McLaren is quite outstanding, the benchmark team.
I still find the team very difficult to warm to however, and just about the only reason I want to see a McLaren win is when JB is in the hunt. Or when Hakkinen or Coulthard were putting one over Schumacher.
In so many ways, McLaren represents everything that is wrong with Grand Prix racing today. They have done a fantastic job and raised the bar so many times within the scope of F1 rules and regulations (lets not go what happened in 2007, what I’m talking about is a much wider scope than that) but to me, they have driven the soul out of the sport.
The Senna/Prost domination showed how great a job they could do, and fascinating the battle between the two was, I got sick of one team dominating, just as I got sick of the Schumacher/Ferrari years.
So on the one hand, I salute the massive success Ron and the team have had, but on the other the way the team have led the changes in F1 have left us with a sport that virtually bears no relation to that that sucked me in all those years ago.
Lewis is a facsimile of this-a quite brilliant driver but one who has changed and doesn’t quite stir me as he used to.
I hope that makes sense!
Andrew Scoley – fine post Sir and whilst I agree with most of your sentiments, I find myself thinking that it is a bit unfair to blame Ron & McLaren for rasing the bar so high….surely it is for the other teams to take a leaf from the McLaren book and try to match if not outdo them, as Williams and Ferrari have done in the past…..I am loathe to include Bennetton and Renault as due to the Flav years they were surely the most immoral cheats in F1……
I wonder if Lewis’s negotiating team considered that he may be off Ron’s Christmas card list this year? Bet that wasn’t factored in.
Jenson left the team at the right time, perhaps Lewis is joining it at the right time. Probably time for a change and recharge, all round.
Excellent post Mr Scoley.
Mr Harmer. McLaren come across as the complete opposite to me in the modern era. Commercial image is everything, racing is a by-product.
With all due respect Mr Milligan. Enstone (Bennetton/Renault) are hardly the team they were in the Flavio days, and need not be tarnished with the same brush. In fact, there is a British team I still consider pure ‘racers’ at heart.
William,
RD does address this in the magazine article. That they’re a huge commercial entity is one thing, but as long as they win races it’s difficult to say they have their priorities backwards. Can’t stomach those Tooned things though…
Mr Scoley, some very valid points well made and with which I agree wholeheartedly. I must say I like Lewis when he arrived in F1 but, since XIX got hold of him, he has become such a sulky prima donna which has had a detrimental effect on McLaren.
I do not believe that his going to Mercedes is the right move. Given that Michael is recognised as being one of the best car sorters in the business if he, in a Ross Brawn team, cannot sort it, I doubt Lewis can. Equally, I cannot see Nico letting it have it all his own way. That being the case he will continue to sulk putting a strain on both his friendship with Nico and his position in the team.
As regards McLaren, Hamilton’s leaving, I feel, can only have a positive effect on the team. As I have said in another MS post, I reckon that we will see a more relaxed, happier and focused McLaren team under Martin Whitmarsh who, by signing Perez, is making it ‘his’ team and exorcising the ghost of Ron Dennis. With youth and experience alongside each other, McLaren could be the team to beat next season. It also worth noting that both Sergio and Jenson like their cars set up in a similar way which can only be beneficial to the team in not, in effect, having to produce two, different cars.
I’m already looking forward to 2013 – and we’re still not done with 2012!