Ron Dennis
Ronald Dennis CBE is a British businessman and Official British Business Ambassador for The United Kingdom. Dennis is the Global Consultant for Minsheng Investment Corporation and former owner of Absolute Taste, he is best known for his former role as owner, CEO, chairman and founder of McLaren Technology Group. Dennis was removed from his McLaren management roles in 2016 but remained a director of the company and a 25% shareholder until June 2017, when his 37-year association with the company ended. Between 1981 and 2009, Dennis was the team principal of the McLaren Formula One team, was instrumental in transforming the outfit into a regular world championship contender. Constructors' and drivers' world championships were won with Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen and Lewis Hamilton. In January 2007, Dennis sold half of his 30 percent shareholding in the McLaren Group to the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, leaving him with a 15 percent share. In 2009, together with co-owners Mansour Ojjeh's TAG Group and the Bahraini Mumtalakat Holding Company, bought back Daimler AG's 40 per cent shareholding in a deal, concluded in 2011.
As of January 2014, Mumtalakat hold 50 percent of the Group's shares, with Dennis and Mansour Ojjeh holding 25 percent each. Ron Dennis was placed at number 648 in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 with a net worth of £90 million. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2011, Dennis' net worth is estimated to be £177m. In April 2014, it was stated. £300m. His net worth grew in 2014. Aside from McLaren Group, he is one of six British business persons to be an official British Business Ambassador for advanced engineering and manufacturing. Dennis is a main trustee for Tommy's, a miscarriage help charity, he is the Global Consultant for the state owned China Minsheng Investment Group and the chairman for the UK Summit. With interests in foreign trade, Dennis became Chairman of the British East Asian Council in 2014. Before the merger with Louis Vuitton, Dennis was a major shareholder in the luxury watch maker TAG Heuer, along with his business partner, Mansour Ojjeh. In December 2014, he attempted to purchase 50% of McLaren Technology Company from Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Ojjeh, after shareholder relations worsened, but the investment deals Dennis had arranged failed to materialise and the shareholding structure remained as before.
Dennis tried to purchase the company again in October 2016, with an estimated bid of 1.7bn, but Ojjeh and Mumtalakat wanted Dennis out, refusing his bid and in November 2016, Ojjeh and Mumtalakat placed Dennis on'gardening leave' for two months, will not have his contract renewed in January 2017 when it expires. He retained 25% of shares in McLaren Technology Group as well as retaining his'company director' role, 11% shareholder of McLaren Automotive, as well as his role there as Chairman and'company director until July 2017, when Dennis resigned from the company. Dennis was born and raised in Woking and studied motor vehicle engineering at Guildford Technical College, he began working for the Cooper Formula One team in 1966 as a mechanic at the age of 18 where he worked alongside lead driver Jochen Rindt. In 1968 Rindt took Dennis with him. For the 1969 season Rindt moved to Team Lotus; when Brabham chose retirement in 1971, Dennis and his colleague Neil Trundle decided to start their own team.
In 1971, Rondel Racing was founded in Dennis's native Woking. Money was at a premium though and Dennis was trying to find sponsorship. Through Ron's girlfriend, the daughter of John Phelps, director of Phelps Antique Furniture in Twickenham, one of its regular customers Tony Vlassopulos, a barrister son of a Greek shipowner, was asked to sponsor Rondel. Vlassopulos asked his friend Ken Grob, chairman of Alexander Howden, insurance brokers in London if he was interested in joining in. Grob said yes on the proviso that his young son Ian Grob could be part of the team, agreed. From that moment forward, Vlassopulos became Dennis' first sponsor. By the mid-1970s the team was enjoying considerable success in Formula Two. Rondel aspired to be more than a customer team and Dennis soon managed to find an additional backer to Grob and Vlassopulos in Motul, to help fund a Rondel F1 car. For 1974, a Ray Jessop-designed F1 car was planned but the energy crisis affected Motul's backing; however Dennis didn't have the overall fund anyway and so Trundle continued with the designed car from Jessop and Vlassopulos and Grob took over the ownership, with the car becoming the Token.
Dennis regrouped, forming a Marlboro-backed F2 team for two talented and well-sponsored drivers from Ecuador. In 1975 Dennis founded the Project Three team, his cars once again became race winners. In the late 1970s, Dennis founded Project Four Racing; this team went on to great success in Formula 2 and Formula 3, winning championships in 1979 and 1980 with Philip Morris backing. Project Four participated in the build programme for Procar BMW M1 racing cars; as his business interests became successful and lucrative, Dennis aspired to return to Formula One, hiring talented designer John Barnard to spearhead the design and development of an innovative new F1 car. Dennis's return to Formula One was well-timed; the recent poor performance of the former world championship-winning McLaren team had prompted Philip Morris executive John Hogan to initiate a takeover of the outfit by Dennis's Project Four operation. A reverse takeover, it heralded the arrival of the rebranded McLaren International operatio
Riccardo Patrese
Riccardo Gabriele Patrese is an Italian former racing driver, who raced in Formula One from 1977 to 1993. He became the first Formula One driver to achieve 200 Grand Prix starts when he appeared at the 1990 British Grand Prix, the first to achieve 250 starts at the 1993 German Grand Prix. Patrese entered 257 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix and started 256 races making him the seventh most experienced F1 driver in history, after Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa, he was runner-up in the 1992 Formula One season and third in 1989 and 1991. He won six Formula One races, with a record gap of over six years between two of these – the 1983 South African Grand Prix and 1990 San Marino Grand Prix. Patrese competed at the World Sportscar Championship for the Lancia factory team, finishing runner-up in 1982 and collecting eight wins. Born in Padua, Patrese started driving karts at age 9. Growing up near the Italian Alps, he was selected for the Italian national ski team as a teenager, was in addition a competitive swimmer.
In 1974, he won the Karting World Championship at the Estoril circuit, finishing ahead of second-placed teammate and fellow future F1 driver Eddie Cheever. He received an offer to drive in Formula Italia the following year, finishing second in the championship to another future F1 racer, Bruno Giacomelli. In 1976, he moved up to Formula 3; the following year he moved to Formula 2 before making his Formula One debut midway through the year. He made his debut at the 1977 Monaco Grand Prix with the Shadow racing team sponsored by Italian businessman Franco Ambrosio, replacing Renzo Zorzi, he took his first point at the Japanese Grand Prix that year. That year team-leader Jackie Oliver and sponsor Ambrosio left Shadow to form the Arrows team. Patrese and Shadow teammate Alan Jones both received offers from the Williams team for 1978: whilst Jones joined Williams, Patrese linked up with Arrows, alongside Rolf Stommelen. Shadow subsequently took Arrows to court, arguing that Arrows had stolen the design of the Shadow DN9 that Arrows and were running a DN9 under a different name.
The court agreed, forcing Arrows to design and construct a new car, the Arrows A1, which became the first of the Arrows F1 bloodline. In 1978 Patrese nearly won Arrows' second race, the South African Grand Prix, until engine failure forced him to retire 15 laps from the end, he subsequently took second at the Swedish Grand Prix behind Niki Lauda's Brabham BT46B "fan car", in its only appearance before being withdrawn. However, his driving style was perceived by some established drivers, such as Ronnie Peterson and James Hunt, as being over-aggressive; that year, Patrese was involved in a pile-up when he came together with Hunt and other drivers' cars at the start of the Italian Grand Prix. One of the other drivers involved was Peterson, although his injuries were not in themselves life-threatening, died from an embolism the following day. At the next race, the United States Grand Prix, five top drivers - Hunt, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi and Jody Scheckter - declared that unless Patrese was banned from the race that they would withdraw.
The race organisers agreed to this: although Patrese stated that he obtained a ruling from a local judge in Watkins Glen stating that the ban was a violation of his right to work, Arrows decided to withdraw his entry due to pressure from the organisers and the FIA. He returned to competition at the Canadian Grand Prix, where he finished fourth. After the crash, Hunt blamed Patrese for starting the accident, viewers of Hunt's commentaries of Formula One races from 1980 to 1993 on BBC Television were treated to bitter diatribes against Patrese when the Italian appeared on screen. Hunt believed that it was Patrese's muscling past that caused the McLaren driven by Hunt and the Lotus driven by Peterson to touch, but Patrese argued that he was well ahead of the pair before the accident took place. Patrese, together with the official who started the race, stood trial in 1981 for Peterson's death but both were declared not guilty of any wrongdoing. Two of Patrese's most notable performances during his Arrows years were at the United States Grand Prix West in Long Beach, where he finished second in 1980 and took pole position in the following year: he led the latter race before being forced to retire by a blocked fuel filter.
In 1982 Patrese moved to Brabham and gained a lucky win at that year's Monaco Grand Prix when there were five leaders. He took the lead; this left him third behind Didier Pironi and Andrea de Cesaris, who both stopped on the final lap – Pironi with an electrical fault and de Cesaris out of fuel. That season he led the Austrian Grand Prix but retired due to an engine failure. A second win followed in 1983 at the South African Grand Prix, he crashed out late in the race while leading at San Marino - to the cheers of the tifosi, as his shunt meant that he handed the race win to Ferrari driver Patrick Tambay - and took pole on home ground at the Italian Grand Prix, before his engine blew up in the early stages of the race: in a 2010 interview he said he suspected that his engine had been left in its qualifying trim, rendering it powerful but fragile, as he had not been offered a new contract for the following year, had been reluctant to sacrifice his chances of winning his home Grand Prix for teammate Nelson Piquet, fighting for the World Championship.
Piquet claimed his second Drivers' Championship title that year, b
Lancia
Lancia is an Italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia as Lancia & C.. It became part of the Fiat Group in 1969; the company has a strong rally heritage and is noted for using letters of the Greek alphabet for its model names. Lancia vehicles are no longer sold outside Italy and comprise only the Ypsilon supermini range, as the late Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne foreshadowed in January 2014 until his death in 2018. Lancia & C. Fabbrica Automobili was founded on 29 November 1906 in Turin by Fiat racing drivers, Vincenzo Lancia and his friend, Claudio Fogolin; the first car manufactured by Lancia was the "Tipo 51" or "12 HP", which remained in production from 1907 to 1908. It had a small four-cylinder engine with a power output of 28 PS. In 1910, Lancia components were exported to the United States where they were assembled and sold as SGVs by the SGV Company. In 1915, Lancia manufactured its first truck, the Jota that continued as a dedicated series. In 1937, Vincenzo died of a heart attack and both his wife, Adele Miglietti Lancia, his son, Gianni Lancia, took over control of the company.
They persuaded Vittorio Jano to join as an engineer. Jano had made a name for himself by designing various Alfa Romeo models, including some of its most successful race cars such as the 6C, P2 and P3. Lancia is renowned in the automotive world for introducing cars with numerous innovations; these include the Theta of 1913, the first European production car to feature a complete electrical system as standard equipment. Lancia's first car adopting a monocoque chassis – the Lambda produced from 1922 to 1931 - featured'Sliding Pillar' independent front suspension that incorporated the spring and hydraulic damper into a single unit. 1948 saw the first 5 speed gearbox to be fitted to a production car. Lancia premiered the first full-production V6 engine, in the 1950 Aurelia, after earlier industry-leading experiments with V8 and V12 engine configurations, it was the first manufacturer to produce a V4 engine. Other innovations involved the use of independent suspension in production cars and rear transaxles, which were first fitted to the Aurelia and Flaminia range.
This drive for innovation, constant quest for excellence, fixation of quality, complex construction processes and antiqued production machinery meant that all cars had to be hand-made. With little commonality between the various models, the cost of production continued to increase extensively, while no increase in demand affecting Lancia's viability. Gianni Lancia, a graduate engineer, was president of Lancia from 1947 to 1955. In 1956 the Pesenti family took over control of Lancia with Carlo Pesenti in charge of the company. Fiat launched a take-over bid in October 1969, accepted by Lancia as the company was losing significant sums of money, with losses in 1969 being GB£20m; this was not the end of the distinctive Lancia marque, new models in the 1970s such as the Stratos and Beta served to prove that Fiat wished to preserve the image of the brand it had acquired. During the 1970s and 1980s, Lancia had great success in rallying, winning many World Rally Championships. During the 1980s, the company cooperated with Saab Automobile, with the Lancia Delta being sold as the Saab 600 in Sweden.
The 1985 Lancia Thema shared a platform with the Saab 9000, Fiat Croma and the Alfa Romeo 164. During the 1990s, all models were related to other Fiat models. Starting from 1 February 2007, Fiat's automotive operations were reorganised. Fiat Auto became Fiat Group Automobiles S.p. A. Fiat S.p. A.'s branch handling mainstream automotive production. The current company, Lancia Automobiles S.p. A. was created from the pre-existing brand, controlled 100% by FGA. In 2011, Lancia moved in a new direction and added new models manufactured by Chrysler and sold under the Lancia badge in many European markets. Conversely, Lancia built models began to be sold in right-hand drive markets under the Chrysler badge. In 2015 Lancia's parent company Fiat Group Automobiles S.p. A. became FCA Italy S.p. A. reflecting the earlier incorporation of Fiat S.p. A. into Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. 1907From 1907 to 1910 Lancia cars didn't bear a true badge, but rather a brass plaque identifying the manufacturer and chassis code.
1911The original Lancia logo was designed by Count Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia. In 1910 Vincenzo Lancia asked Biscaretti di Ruffia to design a badge for the company. Vincenzo Lancia chose a round one, composed by a blue lance and flag bearing a Lancia script in gold, over a four-spoke steering wheel, with a hand throttle detail on the right spoke; the first car to bear the Lancia logo was the Gamma 20 HP in 1911. 1929In 1929 the logo acquired its final layout: the previous round badge was superimposed on a blue shield in the shape of a Reuleaux triangle. Though first applied on the 1929 Dikappa, this badge was only used consintently starting with the 1936 Aprilia. 1957Beginning with the 1957 Flaminia, Lancia cars switched from the traditional vertical split grille to an horizontal, full-width one. The logo was therefore moved inside the grille opening, changed to a more stylized chromed metal open-work design.
Watkins Glen, New York
Watkins Glen is a village in Schuyler County, New York, United States, it is the county seat of Schuyler County. Watkins Glen lies within the towns of Reading; the current mayor, as of 2015, is Samuel Schimizzi. The village is home to the well-known race track Watkins Glen International, host of NASCAR Cup Series, IndyCar and a former host of the United States Grand Prix of Formula One; the first settlement of European peoples in the area began circa 1800. Watkins Glen was the northern terminus of the Chemung Canal, started in 1830 and completed in 1833, connecting Seneca Lake to the Chemung River. Catharine Creek, flowing into the lake through the village, was used to help create the canal; the village was incorporated in 1842 as Salubria Jefferson, but was renamed Watkins after Dr. Samuel Watkins, the founder, for his contributions to the community; the current name Watkins Glen was adopted in 1926. For the first half of the 20th century, the village was known as the site of Glen Springs Sanitarium, one of the leading spas in the United States.
The A. F. Chapman House, First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen, Schuyler County Courthouse Complex, St. James Episcopal Church, United States Post Office, Watkins Glen Commercial Historic District, Watkins Glen Grand Prix Course, 1948-1952, Watkins Glen High School are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Watkins Glen is located at 42°22′52″N 76°52′16″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 2.2 square miles. 1.9 square miles of the village is land and 0.4 square miles of it is water. New York State Route 14 joins New York State Route 414 by Watkins Glen. NY-14 is one of the principal streets in Watkins Glen village. New York State Route 329 and New York State Route 409 lead into Watkins Glen from the west; as of the census of 2010, there were 1,859 people, 873 households, 442 families residing in the village. The population density was 845 per square mile. There were 977 housing units at an average density of 444 per square mile; the racial makeup of the village was 96.2% White, 0.50% African American, 0.40% Native American, 0.50% Asian, 0.70% from other races, 1.70% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.40% of the population. There were 873 households out of which 22.60% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.70% were married couples living together, 12.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 49.40% were non-families. 42.40% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.09 and the average family size was 2.86. In the village, the age distribution of the population was spread out with 22.70% under the age of 20, 5.40% from 20 to 24, 31.80% from 25 to 50 and 17.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43.20 years old. The Village of Watkins Glen had 866 male residents, 993 female residents; the median income for a household in the village was $34,969 and the median income for a family was $55,357. Males had a median income of $37,885 versus $29,000 for females; the per capita income for the village was $24,116. 5.0% of the population and 1.70% of families were living below the poverty line.
3.6% of those under the age of 18 and 6.80% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. Located on the southern tip of Seneca Lake, one of western New York's deep, glacial Finger Lakes, Watkins Glen is the site of scenic Watkins Glen State Park. Watkins Glen is noted for its role in auto racing, being the home of a street course used in road racing, a famous racetrack, Watkins Glen International, one of the premier automobile road racing tracks in the United States, which has hosted the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series I Love New York 355 at The Glen, IndyCar Series Grand Prix at The Glen, the IMSA SportsCar Championship 6 Hours of Watkins Glen; the first Watkins Glen Sports Car Grand Prix, was held in 1948 on public streets in and near the village. Organized by local resident Cameron Argetsinger, it was the first post-WWII road race held in the United States and it marked the revival of American road racing; the original course passed through the center of the village. The streets used for the original course remain intact today and a checkered flag marks the original start-finish line on the village's main street.
A permanent racing facility, the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course opened in 1956. It has hosted nearly every type of road racing, from the Sahlen's 6 Hours of Watkins Glen, the Formula One United States Grand Prix, the I Love New York 355 at The Glen, one of the few races on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule not conducted on an oval speedway, the other being Sonoma Raceway; the International Motor Racing Research Center, an annex to the village library, is located in Watkins Glen. Since 2014, Watkins Glen has hosted a weekend of IJSBA closed course racing, has become one of the largest race venues in the sport today. Promoted in Region 8 by NEWA, until 2016 when East Coast Watercross purchased the series, racing has been at Clute Memorial Park and Campground, is the last weekend in August; the event has always been free to spectators, features both closed course racing and freestyle competition using standup, sit-down, sport class machines. The racetrack was the scene of the 1973 Summer Jam at Watkins Glen rock festival attended by an estimated 600,000 people, one-and-a-half time the crowd at 1969's historic Woodstock Festival and a world record for the largest number of people at a pop mu
1994 Formula One World Championship
The 1994 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 48th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1994 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1994 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 27 March and ended on 13 November. Michael Schumacher won his first Drivers' Championship, while Williams-Renault won their third consecutive Constructors' Championship, the seventh in all for Williams. 1994 was one of the most controversial seasons in the sport's history. The San Marino Grand Prix saw the deaths of Austrian rookie Roland Ratzenberger and three-time World Champion Ayrton Senna. Schumacher won six of the first seven races, building a significant lead for himself in the Drivers' Championship and for Benetton-Ford in the Constructors' Championship. There and Hill controversially collided while disputing the lead, handing the Drivers' Championship to the German. 1992 World Champion Nigel Mansell, returning to F1 after two seasons in CART, won the race to secure the Constructors' Championship for Williams.
Forty-six drivers competed in the 1994 World Championship, including fourteen making their F1 debut, numerous pay drivers. Mercedes-Benz returned to the sport for the first time since 1955, as an engine supplier to Swiss team Sauber; the season saw the first win for Ferrari since 1990, whilst McLaren, following the departure of Senna, endured their first winless season since 1980. 1994 was the final season for the original Team Lotus, one of the most successful constructors in Formula One history. The following teams and drivers competed in the 1994 FIA Formula One World Championship. ^1 With the retirement of reigning champion Alain Prost, car number 1 was not assigned. The Argentine Grand Prix had been scheduled for October 16, but was aborted as the Buenos Aires-located Oscar Galvez track, being modernized since 1991, was still undergoing work and the owners were not finished with the project; the race was moved to Jerez to become the European Grand Prix In order to combat the spiralling costs of running a Formula One team, to counteract criticism that over-reliance on technology was reducing the drivers to a secondary role, sweeping rule changes were introduced for 1994, most notably a ban on all electronic "driver aids" such as active suspension, anti-lock brakes, traction control and launch control.
Ayrton Senna was among several observers who said that, with such features removed but no attempt to curtail the speed of the cars, 1994 would be "a season with a lot of accidents". 1994 saw the reintroduction of refuelling during the race for the first time since 1983. After Senna's fatal crash at Imola, several rule changes were introduced to slow the cars. In Spain, front wing endplates and rear diffusers were reduced in size. For the following race in Canada, the effectiveness of the airbox was reduced by means of holes cut into the engine cover, resulting in less power. From Germany onwards, a rule was introduced, still in place as of 2015: a 10mm wooden plank was affixed to the underside of every car to reduce ground effect advantages, whilst forcing an increase in ride height. Wear was permitted on the plank up to 1mm by the end of the race. After winning in Belgium, Michael Schumacher would be disqualified after the plank on his Benetton was deemed to have excessive wear; the big news in the paddock after the 1993 season was the retirement of defending World Champion Alain Prost after winning his fourth title, his replacement at Williams by long-term rival Ayrton Senna.
It was thought that Senna's move to Williams was a factor behind Prost's retirement, which in a interview was proved to be correct. Prost's retirement saw the second season in succession where the reigning World Champion would not defend their title after 1992 champion Nigel Mansell had spent 1993 racing in the US based Champ Car series. Williams retained Damon Hill to partner incoming Ayrton Senna. Test driver David Coulthard would replace the Brazilian following his fatal accident. Nigel Mansell took over the car alongside the final three races of the season; as they had done since 1989, Williams continued to use factory Renault V10 engines. McLaren, having lost iconic driver Ayrton Senna to Williams, promoted Mika Häkkinen to team leader and brought in experienced Martin Brundle. Following a year with customer Ford V8 power and a brief flirtation testing the Lamborghini V12 engine, the team settled on works Peugeot V10 engines for 1994. Benetton kept Michael Schumacher as their lead driver and replaced the now retired Riccardo Patrese with Keke Rosberg's protégé JJ Lehto.
The team's Dutch test-driver, Jos Verstappen, Johnny Herbert drove for the team during the season. The cars were powered by the new Ford ECA Zetec-R V8 engine. Ferrari retained their 1993 driver line-up of Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger who drove the John Barnard designed 412T1 powered by the only V12 left in Grand Prix racing. Sauber's Ilmor V10 engines were rebadged "Mercedes-Benz" for the 1994 season signaling the German marque's return to Formula One for the first time since 1955, the team's driver lineup changed as they replaced JJ Lehto with German debutant Heinz-Harald Frentzen to partner Karl Wendlinger, though the Finn would return after injury plagued his time at Benetton. Jordan retained their final line-up of 1993
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor but competes in the Indianapolis 500 and has won the Canadian-American Challenge Cup; the team is the second oldest active Formula One team after Ferrari, where they compete as McLaren F1 Team. They are the second most successful team in Formula One history after Ferrari, having won 182 races, 12 Drivers' Championships and eight Constructors' Championships; the team is a wholly owned subsidiary of the McLaren Group. Founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren, the team won its first Grand Prix at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix, but their greatest initial success was in Can-Am, which they dominated from 1967 to 1971. Further American triumph followed, with Indianapolis 500 wins in McLaren cars for Mark Donohue in 1972 and Johnny Rutherford in 1974 and 1976. After Bruce McLaren died in a testing accident in 1970, Teddy Mayer took over and led the team to their first Formula One Constructors' Championship in 1974, with Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt winning the Drivers' Championship in 1974 and 1976 respectively.
The year 1974 marked the start of a long-standing sponsorship by Phillip Morris' Marlboro cigarette brand. In 1981, McLaren merged with Ron Dennis' Project Four Racing; this began the team's most successful era: with Porsche and Honda engines, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna took between them seven Drivers' Championships and the team took six Constructors' Championships. The combination of Prost and Senna was dominant—together they won all but one race in 1988—but their rivalry soured and Prost left for Ferrari. Fellow English team Williams offered the most consistent challenge during this period, the two winning every constructors' title between 1984 and 1994. However, by the mid-1990s, Honda had withdrawn from Formula One, Senna had moved to Williams, the team went three seasons without a win. With Mercedes-Benz engines, West sponsorship, former Williams designer Adrian Newey, further championships came in 1998 and 1999 with driver Mika Häkkinen, during the 2000s the team were consistent front-runners, driver Lewis Hamilton taking their latest title in 2008.
Ron Dennis retired as McLaren team principal in 2009, handing over to long time McLaren employee Martin Whitmarsh. However, at the end of 2013, after the team's worst season since 2004, Whitmarsh was ousted. McLaren announced in 2013 that they would be using Honda engines from 2015 onwards, replacing Mercedes-Benz; the team raced as McLaren-Honda for the first time since 1992 at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix. In September 2017, McLaren announced they had agreed on an engine supply with Renault from 2018 to 2020. Bruce McLaren Motor Racing was founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren. Bruce was a works driver for the British Formula One team Cooper with whom he had won three Grands Prix and come second in the 1960 World Championship. Wanting to compete in the Australasian Tasman Series, Bruce approached his employers, but when team owner Charles Cooper insisted on using 1.5-litre Formula One-specification engines instead of the 2.5-litre motors permitted by the Tasman rules, Bruce decided to set up his own team to run him and his prospective Formula One teammate Timmy Mayer with custom-built Cooper cars.
Bruce won the 1964 series, but Mayer was killed in practice for the final race at the Longford Circuit in Tasmania. When Bruce McLaren approached Teddy Mayer to help him with the purchase of the Zerex sports car from Roger Penske, Teddy Mayer and Bruce McLaren began discussing a business partnership resulting in Teddy Mayer buying in to Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Limited becoming its largest shareholder; the team was based in Feltham in 1963–1964, from 1965 until 1981 in Colnbrook, England. The team held the British licence. Despite this, Bruce never used the traditional British racing green on his cars. Instead, he used colour schemes. During this period, Bruce drove for his team in sports car races in the United Kingdom and North America and entered the 1965 Tasman Series with Phil Hill, but did not win it, he continued to drive in Grands Prix for Cooper, but judging that team's form to be waning, decided to race his own cars in 1966. Bruce made the team's Grand Prix debut at the 1966 Monaco race.
His race ended after nine laps due to a terminal oil leak. The 1966 car was the M2B designed by Robin Herd, but the programme was hampered by a poor choice of engines: a 3.0-litre version of Ford's Indianapolis 500 engine and a Serenissima V8 were used, the latter scoring the team's first point in Britain, but both were underpowered and unreliable. For 1967 Bruce decided to use a British Racing Motors V12 engine, but due to delays with the engine, was forced to use a modified Formula Two car called the M4B powered by a 2.1-litre BRM V8 building a similar but larger car called the M5A for the V12. Neither car brought the best result being a fourth at Monaco. For 1968, after driving McLaren's sole entry for the previous two years, Bruce was joined by 1967 champion and fellow New Zealander Denny Hulme, racing for McLaren in Can-Am; that year's new M7A car, Herd's final design for the team, was powered by Cosworth's new and soon to be ubiquitous DFV engine and with
Jordan Grand Prix
Jordan Grand Prix was a Formula One constructor that competed from 1991 to 2005. The team is named after founder Eddie Jordan. Jordan and his team were well known for an easygoing attitude which added colour and character to Formula One in the 1990s; the team was based at UK but raced with the Irish licence. In early 2005, the team was sold to Midland Group, who competed for one final season as'Jordan', before renaming the team as MF1 Racing for the 2006 season, before being sold in 2006 to Dutch car manufacturer Spyker to become Spyker F1 for 2007, sold again to become Force India in 2008. In 2018, as a result of the financial collapse of the Force India team, its subsequent buyout by a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll, the team's FIA entry was not transferred, the Jordan Grand Prix's original entry was excluded from the sport. Eddie Jordan, bitten by the karting bug in Jersey in 1970, had a brief stint as a race driver in the late 1970s before founding Eddie Jordan Racing in the early 1980s.
The team first came to prominence in the 1983 British Formula Three championship with a duel between one-time Jordan test driver Ayrton Senna and Jordan-Ralt driver Martin Brundle. Brundle was edged out by the Brazilian at the last round of the championship; the team graduated to International Formula 3000 for 1988, winning its first race in the category with Johnny Herbert. In 1989, Jordan won the F3000 drivers' championship with future Formula One star Jean Alesi; the team ran future F1 drivers such as Martin Donnelly and Eddie Irvine in F3000. Jordan's success in lower formulae inspired the creation of a Formula One programme for the 1991 season and a change of name to Jordan Grand Prix; the first driver to test a Jordan F1 car was veteran Ulsterman John Watson. Jordan hired Italian veteran Andrea de Cesaris and Belgian Bertrand Gachot to race his first cars, which were powered by Ford; the team had a solid debut finishing 5th in the Constructors' Championship, with de Cesaris finishing 9th in the Drivers' Championship.
De Cesaris ran second for much of the Belgian Grand Prix, was gaining on leader Ayrton Senna until the car failed in the closing laps. Gachot failed to end the season after being sent to prison for attacking a taxi driver. Gachot was replaced for the Belgian Grand Prix by Michael Schumacher, for whom the team received $150,000 from Mercedes-Benz who were keen to give their young German sportscar star experience of Grand Prix racing in readiness for the firm's future F1 ambitions. Despite Jordan's signed agreement in principle with Mercedes for the remainder of the season, Schumacher was signed by Benetton-Ford for the following race. Jordan applied for an injunction in the UK courts to prevent Schumacher driving for Benetton, but lost the case as they had not yet signed a contract. Future Champ Car title winner Alex Zanardi and ousted Benetton driver Roberto Moreno filled the second car afterwards. Success for Jordan came at a high price; the team was forced to switch to cheaper Yamaha engines for the 1992 season.
With Maurício Gugelmin and Stefano Modena driving, the team struggled badly and failed to score a point until the final race of the season. 1993 saw further changes, with the team again changing this time to Hart. Again, the season started with two new drivers, Ivan Capelli and Brazilian rookie Rubens Barrichello. Capelli left after two races and Barrichello saw five other drivers become teammates of his during the 1993 campaign. Jordan only had scoring three points. Signs of stability were beginning to show near the end of the season when Barrichello was joined by Eddie Irvine, a former Jordan driver in F3000; the Ulsterman secured a point on his debut Formula One race at Suzuka. It was further memorable because Irvine unlapped himself against McLaren's Ayrton Senna, in order to overtake Damon Hill. After the race finished, an incensed Senna, infuriated by what he deemed as unsafe racing by Irvine in poor weather conditions stormed into the Jordan garage and punched Irvine in the face after Irvine pushed him in a heated discussion in which both drivers lost their temper.
Barrichello and Irvine returned for the 1994 season, as did the Hart engines, but Irvine had a bad start to the season, earning a three-race ban for reckless driving. Barrichello earned the team their first top three finish in Japan at the Pacific Grand Prix, but was nearly killed during the following race in San Marino following a frightening qualifying crash; the team overcame these difficulties and returned to their initial form as they finished fifth in the Constructors' Championship again. Barrichello earned Jordan's first pole position after a gamble during a wet qualifying session in Belgium, finished 6th in the Drivers' Championship with 19 points; this achievement stunned the Formula 1 big teams given the fact that a team with such a low budget with an engine designed and built by Darrell O'Brien/Hart Engineering achieved 5th in the Constructors' Championship with 28 points. Jordan switched to Peugeot power in 1995. During the Canadian Grand Prix that year, both Barrichello and Irvine finished on the podium, finishing second and third respectively.
It was the highlight to an unspectacular but solid year for Jordan, as they hung around mid-pack to finish 6th in the Championship. When Irvine left in 1996 to become Michael Schumacher's teammate at Ferrari, Jordan replaced him with veteran Martin Brundle, the ex-Le Mans winner and World Sportscar Champion; the team failed to make the podium, but both drivers managed to score a string of fourth-place finishes as the team scored yet another 5th among the constructors. 1996 saw the team adopt their bright-yellow color scheme which would become their trademark. 1997
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