F1 Ladies

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Back in 1994

with his son

With Viviane Senna ( Bruno's mother ) and Mansour Ojjeh

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Dennis believes the Chinese GP was Raikkonen's to lose - again, the Finn was thwarted by mechanical failure.
Amid all the excitement over the fight between the title contenders in China the strong early performance of Kimi Raikkonen passed largely unnoticed. Yet again the unfortunate Finn was the victim of a technical problem, having also suffered from no fewer than four collisions this year. But had he not retired he could have been in a position to take advantage when Fernando Alonso hit trouble, and could well have scored McLaren’s first win of the season. SPEEDtv.com talked to Ron Dennis about Shanghai – and the title battle.

Q: Was a China a victory that got away?

“Unfortunately, it was!”

Q: What actually stopped him?

“We think it was a throttle actuator gearbox on the engine. It never happened before, and we don’t know why it happened now. It’s not electrical, it’s not hydraulic, it’s a mechanical fault. Then because the throttles were jammed it goes into safety default, selects neutral, and turns the engine off. Which is better than going into the Armco.”

Q: Obviously he was very quick and passed the Hondas, who appeared to have the edge in qualifying…

“What we predicted was what actually happened with the weather. We knew it was going to be wet. We didn’t think there was going to be as much rain as practice, so we trimmed our aero out, really for the race, and then suffered on downforce in qualifying. We were pretty sure if it was a dry or drying circuit that we would have superior straightline speed, which was really what was obvious.”
Q: Looking at what happened to Fernando, would he have had the opportunity to reel him in?

“Fernando as I understand it had exactly the same problem that we had with Pedro. We called it right with Kimi and left the inters on. Pedro called for worn inters, but they went through a graining period, and that’s what happened with Alonso. As soon as the graining period had gone, he had the pace. But we changed all four, which was probably better than changing the fronts.”

Q: What about Pedro’s race? He was in the middle of the action and got some good points…

“Two things happened. He was a little bit aggressive on the pitlane and spun, and then he ran wide later on avoiding running into the back of Barrichello. Otherwise he would have finished fourth. But it was pretty treacherous round the back in the last few laps, and obviously if you’re battling for position then you couldn’t back off and do it safely, that’s why so many people fell off.”

Q: Michael can win the championship in Suzuka. What do you think will happen?

“I don’t know. You can’t feel anything other than sympathy for everybody that’s seeing their championship too-ing and fro-ing. But it’s good for F1. Clearly Renault are doing a good job, so it’s by no means over. I think this is definitely a championship that could go either way, but I’d still put my money on Alonso.”

Q: You’d obviously like to have the number one on his car next year, even if you haven’t earned it…

“To me those sorts of maths are irrelevant. I’m not concerned about number one, I just think Fernando’s done a better job this year and deserves to win. But most people would say I would say that, wouldn’t I!”

Alan Henry
Wednesday January 10, 2007
The Guardian

Ron Dennis, the chairman of McLaren, may be setting his sights on retirement after yesterday's news that 30% of his company's shareholding is to be sold to the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, which is wholly owned by the kingdom of Bahrain and chaired by Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, the Bahraini finance minister and a member of the Bahrain royal family.
Dennis, who will be 60 on June 1, has controlled McLaren since 1980 when the team's then title sponsor Philip Morris hired him to rescue the organisation after a succession of poor seasons.
Many formula one insiders have been expecting him to reduce his commitment to the day-to-day running of the group, which employs more than 1,000 people at its headquarters near Woking, but it was anticipated that he and his fellow director Mansour Ojjeh of the TAG group would sell their 30% stakes to DaimlerChrysler, owner of Mercedes-Benz, which paid a reputed $300m (£154.6m) for a 40% stake in McLaren six years ago.
Dennis said recently that he and Ojjeh were open to offers provided both felt they would be of benefit to the team, which is the centrepiece of an automotive technology empire including electronics, marketing and road car manufacturing.

"I don't know how many times we have discussed it," said Dennis before next Monday's launch of the 2007 McLaren line-up at Valencia, where the drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton will be present at the unveiling of the team's MP4-22 challenger.

"We certainly discussed it last year. Obviously, when you have these discussions, inevitably you get into groups of people and board members realise the sensitivities of the discussions. So sometimes elements leak out. Any opportunity that presents itself to this group that can make it better and is completely supported by its management, who are non-equity holders, I would embrace it."

The shareholding structure of the new group will see DaimlerChrysler holding a 40% stake, the Bahraini investors 30% and Dennis and Ojjeh 15% each. It is anticipated both men will earn $100m (£51.5m) from the sale of 30% of the group.

Dennis said in November that McLaren were financially fitter than at any time in their history and would be debt-free this month. He has handed over much of the day-to-day running of the team to Martin Whitmarsh, the chief executive.

"Martin has spent the last 10 years trying to convince me to retire," Dennis joked at a recent lunch with reporters at the Woking factory. "In the last three years he has intensified his efforts. At the end of the day I'm passionate about formula one. Most people's perception of retirement is that you stop working. My perception is completely different. It's just a systematic back-off. It will be a slow process of disengagement but not a switch. I don't want to quit as a loser."

Ron Dennis has banned McLaren's 2007 driver lineup from drinking alcohol.
Despite Ferrari-bound Kimi Raikkonen's supposed alcoholic indiscretions during his tenure in 2002-2006, the Woking based team's chairman suggested that the only sips taken by Lewis Hamilton or world champion Fernando Alonso this year should be champagne on the podium.
After his drivers trained with Olympic athletes in Finland, Dennis told the Mirror: "We don't see why drivers need to have even one drink in the course of a season."
The irony of Dennis' stance, however, is that whiskey sponsor Johnnie Walker's McLaren-associated slogan for this year is: "Be a champion. Drink responsibly."

#lach #lach #haue

Bahrain 2007