Brown: No problem with Dennis after McLaren move

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New McLaren executive director Zak Brown says there are no problems between him and Ron Dennis despite joining after his departure.

Brown will start work as executive director next month, working alongside Jonathan Neale and reporting to McLaren's executive committee. The announcement came a week after Dennis' departure as chairman and chief executive of the McLaren Technology Group was confirmed, with Brown brought in for his marketing expertise.

While McLaren says it is still looking for a new CEO, Brown says it was actually Dennis who brought him to the company and therefore the two still enjoy a good relationship.

"Ron and I are fine," Brown said. "I talked to him before the announcement, I talked to him post the announcement, I talked to him before I came here and I text him all the time. Ron at the end of the day is the one that recruited me.

"The last couple of years he has left the door open and I had been married to my existing business so there was no opportunity, but when I saw the light at the end of the tunnel with my employment contract I let him know and he turned up the volume in the pursuit of me. I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you right now if it wasn’t for Ron Dennis."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.