Stories suggesting that Sam Michael will become the McLaren Merecedes Team Principal are completely wide of the mark. It is no secret that Martin Whitmarsh is out of the role and while there is a job that is waiting for him at McLaren, heading a beefed-up McLaren Applied Technologies division, which has been created in recent weeks with McLaren Electronics being rolled into Applied Technologies, it is not clear whether Martin will take the offer or simply depart. The changes will have come as a major blow to him but he is a man who has a great deal of value to rival F1 teams and would be a good recruit for a number of them.

Ron Dennis made it clear when he took over McLaren that he would make announcements in February and that would suggest that the answer to the Team Principal question is not as obvious as some people are surmising. It is logical to assume, given Dennis’s neat and tidy nature, that he would have made an announcement about a new Team Principal when he returned to the helm if there was a decision that had been made. That did not happen and this clearly indicates to me that the new team principal will not be Ross Brawn (who has been a free agent since January 1) nor will it be someone who is already at McLaren (ie Sam Michael, Jonathan Neale or another executive). The only logical conclusion is that Dennis has someone in mind who needs to extract himself (or herself) from another position. That being the case, there will be an explosion brewing somewhere else which might give us the answer that we are looking for.