McLaren stalwart calls out Sky Sports broadcast in sensational claim

McLaren stalwart and the man responsible for a chunk of the team's success, Ron Dennis, has claimed that he watched the F1 broadcast on mute because of all the rubbish that was said in the commentary. With Ron living in Britain, where Sky Sports is the only broadcaster, the comments were more or less targeted against the broadcaster.

The broadcasting team includes veterans like Martin Brundle, David Croft, and Ted Kravitz, while at the same time, there has been a younger crop that has started to blossom in Anthony Davidson and Karun Chandhok. The British broadcaster has, in the last few years, faced backlash from different sections of the paddock for the way the commentary was sometimes not as objective.

Former Red Bull and McLaren, Adrian Newey, had also pointed out last season that Sky Sports broadcasts can tend to be a bit nationalistic. The fact that Ron Dennis has made a comment about the same was hence sensational because more often than not, Sky Sports has faced criticism of being too pro-British.

The fact that a Briton has called the broadcaster out was something that would catch the eye of many. The former team boss was one of the most respected people in the F1 paddock in his active days. He took over McLaren in the early 1980s and led for close to 40 years before handing it over to Zak Brown.

In an interview with The Times, Dennis opened up about how he watches F1 races these days, as he said:

"I always turn the sound off. I know too much about it to want to listen to the rubbish that some of these commentators come out with. I watch for the purity of the race. I do love sport, still love watching grands prix. But I will never go back. You can imagine I’ve got children and grandchildren, and they’re pestering me about going. I will arrange it for them but I won’t go."

Former McLaren man on why he'd never return

Opening up on why he'd never return, Ron Dennis explained that he had seen far too many people who came back to the sport. Even though they were given the respect that they deserved and treated well, the former McLaren man felt that those people were nothing more than a spare part to a team. He said:

“The thing is, I witnessed people coming back to Formula 1 after they’d left. The thing is, your opinion is out of date, even if you’re a multiple world champion. People are polite, everything you’d expect them to be. They will sit you down, they will give you a coffee, but you’ve got nothing to offer."

He added:

"You are a spare part and I would never want to be in that position. I’ve got better things to do. “I love my garden, even if I don’t spend much time working in it myself, but I am passionate about it, passionate about so many other things in my life.”

Since Ron Dennis left McLaren, it wasn't until 2024 that the team broke its championship drought. In his heyday in F1, Dennis had led the team with some of the biggest talents in the sport, including Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, and Lewis Hamilton.