McLaren boss Ron Dennis has defended the management structure at the Woking team, amid mounting criticism of the team’s performance in their second era with engine partner Honda..
Recently Dennis denounced Eddie Jordan as the village idiot of F1, after he suggested the team’s bosses are one reason the outfit is struggling in 2015.
Dennis told the latest edition of Autosprint magazine that he is fully supportive of Eric Boullier and Jonathan Neale, who are today directly responsible for the F1 team.
“I come to the grands prix,” he explained, “but I am the chief executive of the entire group, which includes things other than Formula 1. Of course, F1 is a very critical part of the whole business, but I have no direct duties. I observe, I participate in meetings, but I am independent.”
“My opinion is respected, I have a lot of experience to bear, but I don’t like to interfere. My role is to keep the team together and prevent it from breaking into factions.”
“The team is managed well,” Dennis insisted. “From the point of view of management, I would say this is one of the best periods in the history of McLaren, even though that may seem strange as the results are very bad at the moment.”
“Even the drivers understand that, which you can see from their positive attitude. The activities in F1 is the public face of McLaren, and over the next few months we will be proud of how quickly we managed to recover. I have no doubt about that,” added Dennis.
McLaren are enduring their worst year in Formula 1 since Dennis took over the team in the late seventies, and have not won a race since Jenson Button’s victory at the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.