Major changes at McLaren are to see the separate sports car manufacturing and Formula One race team companies merged into a single entity.
The formation of the McLaren Group follows an agreement with Ron Dennis, the man credited with leading McLaren to its household-name status today, to sell his remaining shares in the business.
The move unites McLaren Automotive, which manufactures a renowned series of road cars and has just celebrated its fourth year of profit in just six years of sales, with McLaren Technology Group, which includes the iconic Formula One racing team and a high-tech arm, McLaren Applied Technologies. This works in a number of innovative areas, one of its many outlets being the electronics used in America’s leading single-seater race category the Verizon IndyCar Series.
End of an era
Dennis is selling his 11% stake in McLaren Automotive and 25% he owns of McLaren Technology Group. This brings to an end a 37-year association during which he transformed the F1 team, winning seven F1 constructors and eight drivers titles, and set up the road car manufacturer, creating a group today valued at £2.4 billion with an annual turnover of £898 million.
The current management team of Mike Flewitt, Zak Brown and Jonathan Neale will continue in their roles. Essa Al Khalifa will become Executive Chairman of the new group, and comments that as one Group, the three pillars of the business can support and enhance each other.
“McLaren is unique, due to its strong heritage and passion to be best in everything it does, but also because no other company in the world can claim a corporate structure that comprises automotive, motorsport and applied technologies,” he says.
