Ron Dennis hands over the controls at McLaren

Ron Dennis chose his moment to go carefully: behind him yesterday, a car designed by computer to win yet another world championship and at his side the driver he created, Lewis Hamilton, who was transformed from go-karting novice to Formula One world champion.
Dennis refuses to accept that his decision to step down as McLaren team principal is the end of an era, but his announcement - casually dropped in at the end of the unveiling of the McLaren Mercedes MP4-24 car that will contest the 2009 championship - caused jaws to drop inside the glittering steel-and-glass room at the heart of McLaren's futuristic £250 million headquarters in Woking, Surrey.
Hamilton, the protégé Dennis groomed from the age of 13 to be world champion, had talked through his chances of winning a second consecutive title, while his mentor had discussed how McLaren now designed and tested 95 per cent of their 200mph speed machine using only technology, even before a wheel is turned for the first time this morning at a track in Portugal.
And then Dennis, the most high-profile team leader in Formula One, suddenly revealed that, from March 1, he will no longer be the voice and face of the McLaren Mercedes team. He is passing the mantle he has held for almost three decades to Martin Whitmarsh, his chief executive and right-hand man.
Dennis admitted that he would have gone a year ago but for the debacle of the 2007 season when Hamilton lost the championship in his maiden season by a single point, added to which were the accusations of cheating for which McLaren were fined a record £50million by the FIA, the world governing body.
He could have walked away then and enjoyed a retirement away from the spotlight, spending some of his £200million fortune, flying in his Learjet and sailing on his new yacht.
But Dennis, 61, is the ultimate Formula One street fighter and turned McLaren into a war machine for the 2008 season.
Every waking minute was devoted to expunging the humiliations of the previous year. He succeeded - just - in the final few seconds of one of the most breathless championships in history in Brazil when Hamilton clinched the world title. That signalled the time to go.
“It is a comfortable time to do it,” Dennis said. “There were lots of reasons why it would have been an uncomfortable time a year ago. People would have thought I was doing it under duress, under personal pressure because we had narrowly lost a world championship. Now, people can understand there is no pressure, that I am doing this freely.”
Dennis will be in Australia in March for the first race of the season, but the ignition key to the McLaren race team will be held by Whitmarsh while Dennis attempts to stay in the background as the wise man, ready to be consulted, but not making decisions.
Instead, he will devote his time to the burgeoning McLaren business, which is much more than two racing cars on a grand-prix grid as a world leader in electronics, supplying race series around the world as well as to aviation companies. In the face of the economic downturn, Dennis is committing himself to the rest of the empire he has built from scratch over the past 28 years.
“Let's get it clear - I am not retiring,” he said. “I am going to work harder so that McLaren can power through this recession.” Just as Dennis powered McLaren to the top of Formula One.

source:the london times