25/11/2016
NEWS STORY
Zak Brown, the newly installed Executive Director at McLaren Technology, says it was Ron Dennis who recruited him.
While many were still trying to take on the enormity of recent events at McLaren which saw Ron Dennis, the man who put the F1 team back on the map and much more, put on 'gardening leave', marketing guru Zak Brown was effectively being sworn in as his replacement.
The King is dead, long live the King.
Indeed, the Ronster's office chair was still warm as Brown took office. In a heady ten days, Dennis departed, Brown was recruited and subsequently kitted out in order that he could meet the press at the first opportunity.
At a time we await Lewis Hamilton's promised tell-all tome, surely the unexpurgated outpourings of Dennis, a leading figure in the F1 paddock for several decades is even more keenly anticipated.
And while it will be interesting to read his side of the long knives saga that saw him reduced to trimming the borders and pruning his hollyhocks, it will also be fascinating to see if he entirely endorses Brown's version of events.
"At the end of the day, Ron is the one who recruited me," the American told reporters in Abu Dhabi.
"The last couple of years he left the door open, he turned up the volume in pursuit of me, I wouldn't be talking to you right now if it wasn't for Ron," he insisted.
Just days into his new job, Brown said that while Jonathan Neale will look after the technical side of the business that is the McLaren F1 team, he will focus on "external commercial business", the pair reporting directly to Mansour Ojjeh and Bahrain investment fund Mumtalakat.
"I have more of a commercial background while Jonathan has a technical background," said Brown. "The two of us are working very closely together on the phone and we report to the executive committee."
As far as Ojjeh and Mumtalakat are concerned, Brown's commercial background will be put to good use securing new sponsors for a team which hasn't had a title sponsor since 2013 and whose driver overalls look like something out of a soap powder commercial such is the lack of signage.
"I'm positive we are going to bring in new partners," he said. "I'd like to think the well hasn't run dry and our talent in doing that. Everyone at times talks to each other's sponsors, it's not unusual to see sponsors move and I don't think that will be any different."
Asked how long it might be before the legendary Woking outfit returns to the podium, the American admitted: "I don't know. I just hope it's sooner rather than later.
"I'm going to keep my mouth shut and not make any predictions," he continued, "but we need to get back to winning soon. I think we're on a good path."
Check out our Friday gallery from Abu Dhabi, here.