1-194-599 - National Motor Museum/Heritage Images

Ron Dennis, McLaren Formula 1 team manager, British Grand Prix, Silverstone, Northamptonshire, 1989. After working for various Formula 1 teams as a mechanic in the 1960s, Ron Dennis switched to team management in the 1970s. In 1980, Malboro engineered the merger of the McLaren racing team with Dennis' Project Four team to create McLaren International, and in 1981, Dennis took over the running of the entire operation. The team went on to become one of the most dominant outfits in Formula 1 history, winning the World Drivers' Championship in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988,1989, 1990 and 1991 and the Constructors' Championship in the same years apart from 1986. A lean period followed, but McLaren came back to the fore in the late 1990s, with Mika Hakkinen winning the Drivers' crown in 1998 and 1999 with the Constructors' Championship being won in 1998 as well.