McLaren has confirmed it has bought back the majority of Mercedes-Benz’s stake in its Formula 1 team.
The German car and engine manufacturer owned a 40 per cent share of McLaren’s F1 operation prior to taking over Brawn GP and re-badging under its own name.
Mercedes denied at the time that its Brawn GP buy-out would mean the death of its relationship with McLaren, but conceded that the relationship with McLaren would inherently change.
McLaren had previously announced – as part of Mercedes-Benz’s Brawn GP buy-out – that it planned to buy back the shares from Mercedes.
Team boss Martin Whitmarsh today announced that the McLaren Group has regained a significant portion of the stake for a substantial figure, but confirmed that Mercedes still retained a minor stake.
"We ran out of money to buy back the rest I think it is about 11 per cent that is still owned by Mercedes, but it’s a nuisance not an important or significant number," he told Reuters.
Former team boss and current Chairman of the McLaren Auto Group, Ron Dennis, retains a 15% share of the team, as does Saudi businessman Mansour Ojjeh, with a further 30% per cent belonging to Bahrain-based company Mumtalakat.
Richard Bailey
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