Ron Dennis said he's never lost any sleep over former McLaren men achieving great success after leaving the Woking outfit.
In an extensive interview with Formula1.com, the McLaren CEO was asked to justify the resounding accomplishments of several current stars in the paddock, namely Adrian Newey, Paddy Lowe and Lewis Hamilton, after they parted ways with Dennis command.
"I have great respect for all three of the individuals you mention, and I’m proud that they all achieved success at McLaren before going on to ply their trades elsewhere," Dennis explained.
" It’s rare that a designer, or an engineer, or a driver, stays with one team throughout his career. When I was a young man, in 1966, I started my F1 career at Cooper. Then I moved to Brabham. We’ve all done that kind of thing.
"McLaren has won the drivers’ world championship with seven drivers: Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen and Lewis Hamilton.
"With the single exception of Lewis, whom we famously guided from infancy to the 2008 drivers’ world championship, every single one of those great drivers started his career with a rival team and then moved to McLaren, where he was very successful.
"So the world turns; people move around in Formula 1; sometimes they leave other teams to join us, and at other times it’s the other way around; it works both ways; it’s normal."
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