Mercedes to Buy Out Dennis & Co?

[Harakimi]

German magazine Auto, motor und sport reports that Mercedes-Benz would like to buy the majority of McLaren shares before the season 08 starts. According to the magazine, the deal has already been made and they will officially inform about that before the first race of the season.

Mercedes now owns 40% of the shares, which they aquired 8 years ago. After that, a share of 30% has been sold to Bahrain. It has been speculated that if the deal happens, Mercedes would like to move Ron Dennis to his retirement days. New team pricipal should be Martin Whitmarsh who is now a CEO of McLaren.

It's also rumoured that Mercedes wasn't happy with the way McLaren bosses handled this so called 'spygate' case, and this made damage to Mercedes' image. A source from FIA said that without diplomacy of Mercedes during the case, the team wouldn't be able to attend the 2008 season at all.

This of course is a rumour but Auto, motor und sport is pretty respective source and they usually print only facts.

[Racerpt]

This team will fall into disgrace when that happens. Ferrari had a name and structure (the whole country backing, the charisma etc) to survive its founder, but McLaren, with the recent string of scandal events, may be over as McLaren in the near future, to give place to a full Mercedes F1 only team.

Hope not, but i can see that happen.

[Harakimi]

Spanish magazine Marca reports that McLaren-Mercedes will announce Ron Dennis' future within few days. According to the magazine new team principal will be Whitmarsh and Dennis will be moved to a position where he won't affect to decisions at all...

[CWBeattie]

I like Ron Dennis! He's never afraid to speak up about how F1 favors Ferrari!

[that_guy]

did the "spygate" issue really damaged merc's rep? how many buyers do you think will think twice before buying their car because the company is related to a team stripped of points on F1 for cheating? just asking.. :D

[Harakimi]

did the "spygate" issue really damaged merc's rep? how many buyers do you think will think twice before buying their car because the company is related to a team stripped of points on F1 for cheating? just asking.. :D

It's hard to say how many. I was in talks with a person who is responsible for MB brand and marketing in Finland back in 2000 and when I asked if Häkkinen's back to back championships have affected to sales he replied "the amount of cars sold has not really increased, but the amount of silver coloured MB's sold has increased significantly."

Therefore I'd say yes, it has damaged their rep somehow. Mercedes is a HUGE company, even a slightest transition in markets and we are already talking about millions.

[JoStream]

You're right HaraKimi, but it also has to do with brand equity, value perception, image etc. Mercedes has to have a presence in motorsport.

I don't want Ron to leave now. It would be a real shame for a man who has contributed so much over the past decades to go out this way. He simply doesn't deserve that, regardless of how he treated the spy scandal last year.