Whitmarsh expects smooth transition

During the launch of McLaren's new car, Dennis announced that he will pass on his responsibilities as team principal to Whitmarsh on March 1, before the start of the 2009 season.

Dennis will remain executive chairman of McLaren and will be focusing on other activities, although he said he would still travel to some races.

Having worked with Dennis for two decades, Whitmarsh is expecting no big changes at the team.

"I've worked with Ron for 20 years now and anyone who knows this team well knows how it operates," said Whitmarsh. "It has been a transition - Ron has reached that point.

"I was keen for Ron to dictate the time frame for it so I never pushed him, nor have I wanted any external influence in that regard. It's very much Ron's timing and about how he takes his life forward.

"He has had an incredible career and I have had the privilege of working for him and with him for 20 years. He's a remarkable individual, sometimes misunderstood and we haven't always seen everything from precisely the same direction ourselves, but I hope there is a mutual respect."

He added: "I was very involved with Lewis (Hamilton) in the early parts of his career and I've been reasonably involved in the latter part. If I was stepping into this team from outside the business, you could predict some dramatic changes, but I've had a certain amount of influence so far and if that influence is slightly extended this year then I am very happy about that.

"I'm very fortunate to have a great relationship with all four of our drivers and we have a very harmonious team with a great bunch of people. I have an incredible honour here in that I was personally involved in the recruitment of a lot of them, so I've had the satisfaction of seeing how they've developed.

"We're a great team. No guarantees, there are some very strong teams in Formula On and we've got to beat them."

Whitmarsh admitted he was proud about his new role, and said Dennis's decision was not such a surprise for him.

"I'm very proud to have been a member of this organisation for 20 years and I am very proud to have any senior position at McLaren," he said.

"For me and for a lot of people, it's not such a shock! So for me it's something that I've perhaps had other opportunities over the years - I have to say less so these days maybe because I'm getting older!

"But within the industry it's well known that I've never had an ambition to work at another team. I am massively privileged and I walk into the engineering office and see some phenomenal people and know that I had a hand in recruiting them and developing them early in their careers.

"All of them are cleverer than me, so that's reassuring! The depth of this team is phenomenal. We make mistakes, we're not perfect, we could be better and I and everyone here is committed to getting better as a team."