bauc wrote:Bahrain agrees McLaren share sale to Dennis (Reuters)
“Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat has agreed to sell some of its stake in McLaren to the Formula One team’s overall head Ron Dennis, who is set to become the majority shareholder.”
I guess the drivers decision was after all also delayed by the ''background game'' for the ownership of the team
little by little snippets appear
honda decide it is time to return ....in conjunction with McLaren who are keen to become a de facto works team again
honda want alonso who , at the time , is regarded as THE outstanding driver
whitmarsh approaches alonso
ron wants control again , fires whitmarsh [ maybe also wanted by honda who have no confidence in him ?]
ron makes agreement with other shareholders to buy back controlling interest
all this more than 6 months ago
ron seeks funds to carry out the share purchase but hasn't yet raised the capital to do so and take sole control
ron has to get agreement of other shareholders to confirm driver line up , would like another hamilton like coup with KM , but outvoted , probably honda prefer button as well other shareholders
ron is granted extension on buy out deal to resolve embarrasing hiatus over drivers
so the alonso deal is brought about because alonso has no confidence that ferrari will set their house in order , would you after their new team principal appointment ?....their track record under italian management is less than stellar ; alonso had nowhere else to go than McLaren [ love his comment about a number of other attractive offers ...john mc enroe has an appropriate comment ] ; McLaren needed alonso to satisfy honda even if ron had to grit his teeth ; button gets seat after ron is suddenly impressed late in the season having told him to try harder at silverstone [ john mc enroe comments again ]
so actually the WHOLE thing was about ron buying control and getting his own way ....anyone think that was in character ?
to the optimist a glass is half full ; to the pessimist a glass is half empty ; to the F1 engineer the glass is twice as big as it needs to be