McLaren Group boss Ron Dennis has insisted its revised Formula One deal with Mercedes will make the company stronger.
Mercedes-Benz announced on Monday that it was to focus its efforts on Brawn GP , bringing an end to what had been an exclusive tie-up with McLaren. Merecdes will continue to supply engines to McLaren until at least 2015, however.
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However, Dennis believes that the benefits of being free to run its own car company, McLaren Automotive, will actually be a help to its F1 efforts.
"This is a win-win situation, for both McLaren and Daimler," said Dennis, who is chairman of McLaren Automotive and a founding shareholder in the McLaren Group.
"I've often stated that it's my belief that, in order to survive and thrive in 21st-century Formula One, a team must become much more than merely a team.
"That being the case, in order to develop and sustain the revenue streams required to compete and win grands prix and world championships, companies that run Formula One teams must broaden the scope of their commercial activities.
"Nonetheless, all of our partners will of course continue to play a crucial role in our Formula One programme. For that reason, and because the engines they produce are very competitive, we're delighted that Mercedes-Benz has committed to continue not only as an engine supplier but also as a partner of ours until 2015 – and perhaps thereafter."
McLaren plans to buy back the 40 percent stake in the company that Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler has had in the team, which will further strengthen McLaren's independence.
Dennis added: "The next few years will be a very exciting time for McLaren, during which period we intend to become an ever-stronger technological and economic force. Formula 1 will always be a core activity, for sound business reasons as well as for historical sporting reasons.
"We're risk-averse by design. Over the past two years we've analysed in great detail the challenge of entering the high-performance production sports car market. In the MP4-12C, which will be introduced to market in 2011, we have a car that has inherited the genes of the iconic McLaren F1 of 1994 and has already been the subject of much global media acclaim.
"It is proposed that it will be produced in a new state-of-the-art production facility adjacent to the existing award-winning McLaren Technology Centre at Woking."
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Re: Dennis: 'McLaren will thrive'
It will be interesting to see how they fair over the next couple of years. Certainly I can see why Ron Dennis would be happy about having the shackles released and being allowed to go their own route with certain parts of the development, but this is the same situation Williams found themselves in a couple of years ago and look where they are now.
I would like to think that McLaren is slightly better organised but without the "Mercedes" on board how is that going to change peoples perceptions of the team......... including a certain Mr L Hamilton.
Re: Dennis: 'McLaren will thrive'
Only in the weird parallel universe that is F1 can Mercedes-Benz pulling out of McLaren be the best thing to happen to McLaren since, er, Mercedes-Benz bought in to McLaren.
Re: Dennis: 'McLaren will thrive'
I hope McLaren does indeed thrive with their new-found independence from the corporate shackles of Daimler. It would be nice to see a British company truly succeed.