Motorsport correspondent Nigel Roebuck recently met and talked with Martin Whitmarsh, the former team principal of McLaren Formula 1.
Whitmarsh worked in F1 for a quarter of a century until a palace coup at McLaren early in 2014 saw him demoted. Ron Dennis was back in the driver’s seat. It all happened at a board meeting. “Ron told me what he was going to do,” said Martin, “and within five minutes I’d walked out of the building…” “I had a fantastic 10 years in aerospace, and loved it, then came into this industry, and I’ve got no regrets,” said Whitmarsh.
Roebuck writes that a financial accommodation was reached, and Whitmarsh is in the happy position of never having to work again. He and his wife spent the last year travelling the world. He admits that he hasn’t lost his love of F1. “It was difficult at first – in fact, I quite consciously tried not to watch it on TV, because it was all very raw. But I’m past that now – I’ll always love the sport, and I’ll always love McLaren. I want to see them at the front again…” he said.
Whitmarsh now faces a new challenge as CEO of Ben Ainslie Racing, the team dedicated to winning the America’s boating Cup. Whitmarsh has joined another former McLaren employee, Adrian Newey, who has a consultancy role at Ben Ainslie Racing.
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