Why Dennis reclaimed 'unfit' McLaren

With no title sponsor, the memories of last year's troubled Formula 1 season still fresh and a car that needs more performance, you could forgive McLaren for being cautious about its on-track performance going into 2014.

Instead, the returning Ron Dennis is bullish about prospects and believes that actions he has taken since returning to the helm as Group CEO will put it back onto the top step of the podium.

"I believe we will win races this year," he says. "How many we'll win I don't know. How quickly we'll win I don't know. But the focus and commitment that I've given to that part of the company are huge."

For a man who prides himself on living up to his word, such a bold statement says everything about the team's mindset heading into 2014.

But is it realistic to expect victories so soon after the winter management upheaval?

WHY DENNIS RETURNED

The impetus for Dennis receiving the backing from McLaren's board to come back into the F1 sphere was prompted by its dire 2013 season.

Without a podium for the first time since 1980, it was clear that things had to change if the team was going to make the most of its future partnership with Honda.

Before 2013, McLaren's last podium-free season was 1980 © LAT

Dennis revealed he knew by the middle of last year that he needed to get back into a senior role.

"My non-executive capacity started in January 2013 and it took me two days to realise it wasn't for me," he says. "I had great trepidation going into it and after some period of time it just didn't work for me.

"So I decided in the middle of the season it was this way or that way. At the beginning of this year I discussed this with my shareholders.

"They had six days to decide as a window. There was a lot of pre-discussion and, on the sixth day, the decision was taken."

TEAM HAD LOST FOCUS

Dennis was handed a mandate to get McLaren back to being a competitive force in F1, and was clear about where it had gone wrong.

Sergio Perez's tenure at McLaren ended up being just one year © LAT

Rather than specific decisions having triggered its on-track decline, he reckoned the team had evolved step by step in the wrong direction and had lost focus of its core objectives.

"What happens in life, there is evolution and revolution," he says. "And very often when companies evolve they don't always evolve in a positive way.

"So when companies go down this path, small things go wrong and the focus gets lost.

"To relate to the F1 team - the F1 team had lots of other peripheral activities, we supported some of the other teams with technology, and we had some activities assigned to third parties: we did many things that were distracting and there were many people who had responsibilities other than F1. That has gone."

NEW STRUCTURES AND NO TEAM PRINCIPAL

Dennis has moved to ensure that everyone on the F1 team is focused solely on making McLaren win.

There will be less attention on the commercial aspects, a stepping-back from sponsorship commitments, fewer media opportunities and a stricter push on McLaren-only business.

"There is nobody in F1 who has responsibility other than for F1 - looking at F1 and winning in F1," he says.

Newcomer Boullier has a totally different remit to previous McLaren 'team chiefs' © LAT

"And that has gone one further step - the F1 team has no responsibilities for income.

"The new model for our F1 team is that it's completely propagated by people who have no other objective than winning in F1. It's a much-more-focused model with everybody understanding what they have to do."

There have been changes higher up too, one of which has included getting rid of the team principal role that Dennis felt was no longer appropriate for F1.

With time pressures and more and more flyaway races meaning teams are away from base for long periods, a team principal could no longer give the team the focus needed at HQ.

That's why Dennis has instead appointed Eric Boullier to the role of racing director - the Frenchman will focus solely on the racing team.

At the team's Woking facility, there will be an F1 CEO who can focus on the longer-term objectives that will be needed if McLaren is to remain a strong force in F1.

"This [the factory] is where the power has to be," says Dennis. "This is where the development of the car has to be. Making a car go faster happens in this building - it doesn't happen at a grand prix circuit. That just optimises what you've got. You can't make a racing car go faster in the field. It's impossible."

A RETURN TO SELF-INTEREST

Part of the distraction Dennis talks about revolves around McLaren's wider commitment to the health of F1.

Whitmarsh had other responsibilities beyond McLaren © XPB

Martin Whitmarsh was chairman of FOTA - and Boullier his deputy - as they worked on trying to keep the sport and its participants in the best of health.

Dennis, a man who has put himself in the firing line in the past by standing up for other teams, interestingly says the time has come for McLaren to step back a bit from such activities and look after itself.

"I think I've done my bit over the years for steering the teams and participating, sometimes to the detriment of the rest of the company," he says.

"I won't be moved away from the principles by which this company runs, and we'll always be supportive of what we believe to be right. But certainly this year we are going to be totally focused on returning ourselves to competiveness.

"We have sacrificed enough over the last 10 to 20 years for the benefit of the whole. It doesn't mean we're going to be selfish, but we will stand by our principles and we will be supportive of what's right. But we won't lead."

DEMANDING COMMITMENT

Dennis has hinted at more changes to come, and that stretches beyond whoever is appointed to take the F1 CEO role.

McLaren started pre-season testing well, then faded © LAT

While performance on-track is not guaranteed, what is clear is that Dennis means business: and everyone in the company will be expected to match his desire and push to make a change.

"If everybody matches my passion and commitment and focus, we will most definitely win," he says.

"The company is unfit and it needs to get fit. There is pain to getting fit. So hopefully people will have the right mindset and that's what it's about: mindset to understand what we expect of each other, and what I expect of them. It takes time.

"You have to give people time to understand what is expected of them and, if they don't get there, then they won't be with the company.

WINNING IS ALL THAT MATTERS

Dennis is optimistic that he will help secure a title sponsor soon, but one thing he has ruled out totally is stepping up to lead the team itself.

Instead, he is focused on laying the foundations for success.

There's plenty more about the challenges facing McLaren this year in AUTOSPORT's 2014 F1 season guide

"I enjoy doing what I do," he says. "I have a lot to offer the company. What I have no intention of doing is running the grand prix team.

"I will guide the grand prix team and give it the benefit of my knowledge, and if necessary I will use my executive authority to change things.

"I have a lot of respect for the people in that team and I think that they were distracted and not focused enough. We have the ability to harness the brainpower that is available to the company.

"If we need more brainpower then we will recruit it. We have some great people who have already joined the company, we have great people who are going to join the company, and what we have to do is harness them and get them focused on what that company will now be solely and exclusively about, which is winning."

This week's AUTOSPORT's magazine is our bumper 2014 F1 season guide, including everything you need to know about the grand prix year ahead and in-depth analysis of all 22 drivers and 11 teams on the grid