Rumours are continuing to swirl around the McLaren team.
In Monaco, former team champion Alain Prost urged the struggling British outfit to “do something a little bit different” to return to the front of the grid. “Yes, I agree with the comments of Alain,” said the Woking based team’s new-in-2014 team boss, Eric Boullier. “This is what I have been doing since I started.” Also new in 2014 has been the return to F1 management of McLaren ‘supremo’ Ron Dennis, a year ahead of the highly-anticipated works Honda partnership. This week, the Woking based team denied rumours the Japanese car manufacturer is looking to buy a 50 per cent McLaren stake.
Nonetheless, buy-out rumours persist. Italy’s Autosprint reports that, some months ago, Dennis began to seek funding to buy out the 25 per cent share currently held by Mansour Ojjeh, who late last year had a double lung transplant. Buying Ojjeh’s stake would increase Dennis’ ownership to 50 per cent, as was the case for a short time in the 80s.
Recently, Dennis told an Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that he wants to sign one of F1’s very best drivers, singling out Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel as fitting the bill. And Italy’s Omnicorse has raised even wilder speculation about McLaren’s future, claiming Honda is eyeing the Red Bull dream-team of Vettel, Adrian Newey and even team boss Christian Horner.
Image: McLaren
