Outside Line: Sir Ron Dennis sounds good and about time

For me, weaned on motorsport from the seventies until today, Ron Dennis is as important to our sport as Enzo Ferrari is. The fact that for a couple of years, I photographed for Marlboro and had good access to the team, perhaps taints my opinion.

However, if anyone does not believe Dennis' legacy is intrinsic to the colourful F1 narrative, I would ask why. And explain.

I do not know much about the United Kingdom's knighthood and honours, but it is a quirky system that made Lewis Hamilton 'Sir' before Dennis. History shows, and Lewis admits it, that had it not been for the McLaren supremo, the greatest British driver may not have even made it into F1.

Nevertheless, that this was long overdue award was made obvious by comments regarding the news by F1 fans (on just about every respected forum) collectively declaring: "About time!" Indeed it is.

Dennis popped onto my radar in the late seventies when he ran a Formula 2 team, namely Project 4 at a time when the feeder series not only supplied drivers to the top flight but also was a useful testing ground for teams wanting to progress into F1.

Around that time Marlboro had lost hope in Teddy Mayer's running of McLaren. Parent company Philip Morris identified Dennis as a successor and managed to merge Project 4 with McLaren putting Dennis in charge.

This was 1980 after which the team had finished a miserable ninth in the F1 Constructor's standings.

In 1981, under Dennis, the team finished sixth. A year later second and in 1984 they claimed their first F1 Championship in a decade. Niki Lauda won his final of three F1 titles driving for McLaren, with teammate Alain Prost second. The pair won 12 of the 16 races that year. A feat the team last achieved in 1974 with Emerson Fittipaldi.

Thereafter with Dennis at the helm, McLaren went on to win six more F1 constructors' championships and a further nine F1 drivers' world titles. Included in Ron's amazing journey were incredible chapters, including the legendary Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost years, followed by the 1998 and 1999 double by the great Mika Hakkinen vs Michael Schumacher.

And finally, of course, Lewis Hamilton's first World Championship in 2008 came under Ron's watch. The last F1 title won by the Woking team.

That things went sour is very sad for anyone connected to F1. Heartbreaking for McLaren fans as their team lost its way for two decades.

While Zak Brown (who Dennis reportedly hired) has turned the team in the right direction, they are a shadow of the relentless winning machine they were in the glory days of his predecessor. But then he was not left with much to work with from day one.

Maybe the way he went racing was as close to perfection but there were some massive ball drops. Most prominent, Fernando Alonso versus Hamilton cost the team a whopping $100-million for SpyGate while Ron's downfall was probably triggered by Alonso's return in 2015 and exacerbated by the Honda saga, which was about as low as a team could go.

Had the reunification with Honda been a success, Dennis would probably still be in charge at Woking. But that "F2 engine" was the final straw. Much like Mayer was sent packing to make way for Dennis, his tenure with the team ended. And Ron has probably seldom if ever, visited the MTC since he departed, let alone the team's pit garage.

Beyond F1, his achievements were equally daunting, as Dennis built McLaren into the automotive group that it is today. Remaining an intrinsic supplier of race cars to lower categories such as GT3, sportscars and Le Mans, which they won in 1995. Sir Ron is Britain's Enzo Ferrari.

With the great mastermind of Maranello honoured with a movie, one wonders when they will tackle one of our sport's greatest stories, that of Sir Ron Dennis - it will be riveting.