Jo Ramirez blames politics and lack of passion for McLaren situation

Former McLaren team coordinator Jo Ramirez has put the blame of his team’s recent bad run on the track on a lack of passion and politics, as per a report on Motosport.com. The British F1 racing team has not won a single race since Jenson Button’s first place finish in the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, especially struggling in the past two seasons after switching to a Honda engine.

Politics reason for delicate situation at McLaren: Jo Ramirez

A management reshuffle has also taken place at the team, with Zak Brown being appointed as chief executive following the departure of team chief Ron Dennis, who had been with the Woking-based outfit for many years. He was joined by CEO Jost Capito, who had only joined a few months ago.

Marketing chief Ekrem Sami kept his place in management but was made to step down from the board in yet another mix-up at the Formula One team.

75-year-old Ramirez, who managed the British team from 1984-2001, made a pretty bold assessment of the team’s current predicament on a radio interview, whilst also mentioning the sad state of some of the staff members.

“Unfortunately McLaren is in a very delicate situation because there’s a lot of politics,” Ramirez told popular Spanish radio station Cadena COPE. “Jost Capito is leaving and people at McLaren had high hopes for him and he has been there for a few months and the politics were so big that he couldn’t take it and he’s out.”

“Ekrem Sami is still part of the management but he’s no longer in the board. There are so many things that people at McLaren are quite sad. I’m in London and I had lunch with a friend who is still at McLaren and he says he’s sad, because everybody keeps working but there’s no passion.”

“They have jobs and they have to make a living but it’s not the same passion they had before for the job. There’s a lot of people at McLaren who were Ron people.” he added, referring to the impact of Ron Dennis’ exit from McLaren.

Ramirez believes new car will improve situation in 2017

Despite having his concerns with McLaren’s ninth and sixth places finishes in the Constructors Championship over the past two years, Jo seems confident that the team’s new car for the 2017 season will signal an improvement in the team’s fortunes. He also went on to back Fernando Alonso ahead of the upcoming season before concluding the interview with a small dig at the new management.

“Once it settles down a bit more I think in January or February when they launch the new car things will get better. It’s something that Fernando [Alonso] knows and is aware of,”

”Nobody is perfect. Ron made a lot of mistakes, and that’s why he left.

“We’ll see if the new management can resurrect this great name, because those of us who were there are very saddened by what’s going on. They are destroying themselves,” he added.