Ron Dennis may be forced out of McLaren

Was Ron Dennis behind 'lie-gate'?

Ron Dennis' future as CEO of the McLaren Group is reportedly under serious threat after the team were summoned to appear before an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council. McLaren will answer five charges of bringing Formula One into disrepute in Paris on April 29 after Lewis Hamilton was found guilty of deliberately misleading the stewards after the Australian Grand Prix.

The scandal has already cost Dave Ryan his job as sporting director while Hamilton was subsequently excluded from the Australian GP classification. And now Dennis' role in the scandal has also been thrust in the spotlight.

'The crisis has placed the spotlight on the actions of Martin Whitmarsh, the new team principal, but also increasingly on Ron Dennis, the chairman, whose role in the background of this latest trauma to affect his team has never been clarified.

'The Times requested information on two critical issues concerning Dennis yesterday. First, whether he spoke to Ryan in between the protest hearing in Melbourne and the second one four days later in Kuala Lumpur, where Ryan and Hamilton repeated the untruths they uttered in Australia. Second, whether it is the case that Dennis was strongly opposed to Hamilton making a formal apology in front of the massed ranks of the media.'

The report also added that: 'According to some paddock insiders, a deal may be reached whereby Hamilton stays at McLaren but Dennis either leaves or formally renounces any involvement in future Formula One activities and leaves the running of the team entirely in Whitmarsh's hands.' Planet F1