MOTORSPORT veteran Ron Dennis has relinquished his position as chairman and chief executive officer of the McLaren Technology Group (MTG), following a recent meeting of shareholders.

Dennis, who has been part of McLaren since 1980, helping lead the F1 team to 17 world championship titles, was placed on gardening leave, as reported in GulfWeekly … and warm words have been voiced by all parties following the parting of ways.

The news follows ongoing disagreement between Dennis and the group’s majority shareholders over management style and the future path of the businesses. Dennis has resigned from the board and sold his shareholding in both companies.

In a statement on Dennis’s departure, McLaren said: “Ron’s contribution to the success of McLaren has been colossal. During his tenure the team won 17 world championships and 158 Grands Prix, making him the most successful leader in Formula One history. Like the company’s founder, Bruce McLaren, Ron is and will always be one of the true greats of the sport.”

McLaren’s two main shareholders are Mumtalakat, the Bahrain sovereign investment fund, and businessman Mansour Ojjeh. It appears that the souring of Dennis’ relationship with Ojjeh led to his removal. The two were long-time friends and business partners but fell out for both personal and business reasons a few years ago, it has been reported.

Dennis celebrated his 70th birthday on June 1, after 37 years at the helm of McLaren, and 51 years spent working in Formula 1 and other top-level motorsport series. During his tenure, Dennis managing some of the greatest drivers in the history of motorsport (including Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen and Lewis Hamilton, who all won World Championships under his management) as well as the world-renowned Le Mans 24 Hours race in 1995.

Dennis, whose F1 career started in the 1960s as a mechanic for Cooper, took control of the McLaren team in 1981 and remained team principal until early 2009, when he handed over the reins to Martin Whitmarsh in order to concentrate on the group’s other business interests.

On December 18, 1980, Ron merged Team McLaren (as it was then known) with his own company, Project Four, to form McLaren International, then valued at £3m. Fewer than 100 people were employed by the new company at that time. In the 37 years since then, supported by the investment of TAG Group in 1984, Ron has presided over a period of remarkable and prodigious growth which included the launch of a successful sports car series for the road. The McLaren Group is today valued at £2.4 billion, had a combined turnover in 2016 of £898m, and now employs more than 3,400 people.

Dennis said: “I am very pleased to have reached agreement with my fellow McLaren shareholders. It represents a fitting end to my time at McLaren, and will enable me to focus on my other interests. I have always said that my 37 years at Woking should be considered as a chapter in the McLaren book, and I wish McLaren every success as it takes the story forward.

“Perhaps my greatest satisfaction is the Formula 1 team’s outstanding racing safety record, which is a tribute to the dedication and efforts of hundreds if not thousands of talented and conscientious employees whom I have had the privilege of leading.

“I wish McLaren well, and I send my greatest thanks and best wishes to my colleagues in all corners of its business, and at every level of seniority. Truly, they are the best of the best. And, well funded to succeed and grow, and led by an ambitious management team, McLaren is ideally poised to build on the successes that I am so proud to have contributed to during my time leading such a great British group of companies.”

Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa, executive chairman of the McLaren Group and Mumtalakat, said: “I would like to pay tribute to Ron’s immense contribution to the McLaren success story over the past 37 years.

“As soon as he had taken over the running of the team in the late autumn of 1980, it was immediately clear that here was a man whose ambition to surpass the achievements of all previous Formula 1 team principals would not be checked. He rewrote the record books in the 1980s and 1990s, winning Grands Prix and World Championships as a matter of apparent routine. But it was not routine: it was in fact the result of a lot of clever thinking and a huge amount of extremely hard work.

“That ethos remains at McLaren, and I am very proud now to be assuming the position of executive chairman.”

The sports car manufacturing part of the business has been a stunning success but McLaren’s F1 glory seems a distant memory as the team endures a torrid partnership with engine supplier, Honda.

The team only scored its first points of the season in the eighth Formula One race of the 2017 season, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and continues to rack up grid penalties after numerous mechanical failures.

Motor sport fans will be hoping that this move in the boardroom brings forth significant and speedy changes on the track as the team looks to revitalise its fortunes and get back on the path to grand prix podiums again.