Jordan: Whitmarsh never ran McLaren as badly as Dennis is now

McLaren’s arrogance is holding the once-great team back according to former F1 team owner and boss Eddie Jordan, as he controversially rubbished Ron Dennis’ message about all being well at Woking.

As team figures including boss Eric Boullier and driver Jenson Button warn that the current troubles could soon carry through to 2016, supremo Dennis insists the McLaren-Honda project is progressing smoothly.

He told the Independent this week that “virtually every step that we’ve taken has moved us forward as predicted by the team”.

Dennis admitted that McLaren and Honda did not expect the challenge to be “quite as difficult as it has been”, but he insists both sides are making “good progress”.

Jordan, however, thinks McLaren is actually “a mess”, arguing that the predicament of 2015 cannot be blamed just on Honda.

“They have been a shadow of their former selves since they arrogantly stated that Lewis Hamilton would rue the day he left McLaren,” said the Irishman, now an outspoken pundit on British television BBC. “That arrogance is still there at the top of McLaren.”

Jordan said McLaren’s road car programme is a fatal distraction but he also hit out at the team’s “current management structure”.

“Ron Dennis sacked Martin Whitmarsh, but Whitmarsh never did the job of running that team as badly as Dennis is doing it now,” he added.

Dennis, however, insists McLaren-Honda will prove its critics wrong, “The people who decry the team just don’t understand or have the roots we have.”

“And it’s so hard for people to get their minds round this statement, but right now we have one of the best grand prix teams that we’ve ever had. It’s a cohesive, focused group,” Dennis added.