Ron Dennis in legal bid to save McLaren CEO role

The dispute between Ron Dennis and his fellow McLaren Technology Group shareholders has taken a further step with the news that the long time team boss has been in court in London this week in attempt to save his future with the team.

McLaren is co-owned by Dennis (25 percent), Mansour Ojjeh (25 percent) and Bahrain’s Mumtalakat, the country’s sovereign wealth fund (25 percent). The latter pair share similar goals and have been in dispute with Dennis for some time. Dennis was long ago given a deadline to bring new investors to the table.

His partners recently told him that his contract as CEO would not be renewed. A report from the UK’s Sky news said that Dennis went to London’s High Court yesterday and today “in an attempt to secure an injunction against a move to place him on gardening leave until his contract expires in mid-January.” It’s understood that he was not successful.

The report also said that Dennis had last week offered £1.65bn ($2.08bn) in new investment – said to be from China – but that it was not deemed suitable by the other shareholders.

A board meeting is said to be taking place this evening, at which Dennis’s future could be decided.