27/07/2017
NEWS STORY
Those thinking that Ron Dennis has been paid the £275m in lieu of his 25% stake in the company, allowing him to head off into the sunset, would appear to be wrong.
Despite the suggestion that the Briton had been paid off and that the company was seeking to raise £500m to make up for the payment and also further invest in its future, according to Forbes, it would appear that Dennis is being paid in instalments.
Indeed, in a surprise move, as Dennis awaits the second instalment McLaren has secured £37.5m on 13 rare and historic F1 cars.
The cars are: 1981 MP4/1-1 (the first McLaren MP4), 1984 MP4/2-1, 1985 MP4/2B-3, 1986 MP4-2C-5, 1988 MP4/4-1 (pictured), 1989 MP4/5-5, 1990 MP4/5B-7, 1991 MP4/6-10, 1993 MP4/8-8 (car of Ayrton Senna's last win), 1998 MP4/13-4, 1999 MP4/14-4, 2008 MP4/23A-5 and a very rare white Lamborghini powered 1993 MP4/8-1 currently on loan to the Lamborghini Museum.
Other than the Lamborghini-powered car, all the others are currently in Woking, ten of them forming the display in the MTC boulevard.
As J.P. Morgan leads the fundraising efforts for the £500m it seems odd that Dennis wasn't paid in one go severing the relationship as cleanly as many believed was the case, Bahrain's Mumtalakat sovereign wealth fund, which now owns the company, along with Mansour Ojjeh and a number of other private individuals, almost certainly having access to the sort of funding required.
Still struggling with its Honda engines and yet to announce its plans for 2018 and beyond, despite the lack of results in the last couple of seasons, many believe it is the money that Honda pumps into the McLaren vault that has calmed the situation up until now.
Though McLaren has been linked with an alternative engine supply, it would not only mean no money coming in but money going out to the new supplier.
Meanwhile, the Woking outfit waits on Zak Brown to come good on his promise of delivering a title sponsor for 2018.
"Those 13 cars have not been sold and will not be sold," a McLaren spokesman told Pitpass. "As is normal with such transactions, they are security in respect of the last instalment of Ron's settlement, which will be paid to him shortly."
Check out our Thursday gallery from Hungary, here.