Martin Whitmarsh

Martin Whitmarsh (born 29 April 1958) is a British businessman and, since March 2015, the CEO of the Land Rover BAR America's Cup team.[1][2]

Martin Whitmarsh
Martin Whitmarsh at the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix
Born
Martin Whitmarsh

(1958-04-29) 29 April 1958
NationalityBritish
Occupation
  • CEO of the Land Rover BAR America's Cup team,
  • Former CEO of McLaren Racing (2004–2013),
  • Team principal of McLaren Mercedes (2009–2013).

Whitmarsh was the CEO of McLaren Racing, a subsidiary company of the McLaren Group and Chief Operating Officer of that group, as well as being the team principal of McLaren Mercedes. Whitmarsh was also the chairman of the Formula One Teams Association and therefore had the responsibility of representing the F1 teams' interests, until the organisation was disbanded in 2014. In 2014, Whitmarsh was removed from his job of CEO of the McLaren Group, CEO of McLaren Racing and also removed from team principal of McLaren Mercedes. Ron Dennis replaced him in the two CEO posts and Eric Boullier replaced him as team principal of the F1 team.

Career

Whitmarsh graduated from Portsmouth Polytechnic (now the University of Portsmouth) with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1980, and started work at British Aerospace (now BAE Systems) as a structural analysis engineer at its Hamble-le-Rice facility.[3] He was promoted to an advanced composite structures research and development role and transferred to BAe's Weybridge facility. In 1988 he was promoted to the rank of Manufacturing Director and was put in charge of Hawk and Harrier airframe production.[4] He left to join McLaren as Head of Operations in 1989.[5]

In 1997, Whitmarsh was promoted to Managing Director, where he was responsible for McLaren Racing, the company's Formula One operation. This allowed Team Principal Ron Dennis to concentrate on other aspects of the McLaren Group. In April 2004, he was again promoted, this time to the position of COO of McLaren Group.

McLaren

On 1 March 2009 Ron Dennis stepped down as head of McLaren Racing to take a role in McLaren Automotive as he planned to expand the company's operation in car manufacturing. In 2009, Whitmarsh became team principal as a result.[6]

Having started 2009 with an uncompetitive car, McLaren improved as the year progressed, scoring more points than any other team in the second half of the season, to beat Ferrari to third in Constructors' championship by a single point.

In March 2010, Whitmarsh was elevated to president of the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), replacing Ferrari Chairman and FOTA founder, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo.

McLaren did not win a world championship with Whitmarsh as Team Principal, although Lewis Hamilton was in mathematical contention for the drivers' title until the final race of the 2010 season, being 24 points behind Fernando Alonso going into the last race of the season.

Following an uncompetitive 2013 season, Whitmarsh was ousted from his position as CEO of McLaren Racing and McLaren Group and replaced by his predecessor Ron Dennis in January 2014.[7][8] He formally parted ways with McLaren in August 2014 after 24 years with the organisation.[9]

Post-McLaren

After leaving F1, Whitmarsh became chief executive of Olympic yachtsman Ben Ainslie's America's Cup challenge. He left that role in November 2017, moving into an advisory position.

He is also on the global advisory board of Formula E, the FIA's all-electric single-seater series.

In December 2017, Formula 1's governing body, the FIA, announced that Whitmarsh had been invited to act as a consultant to cut costs and help define "regulations for fair and sustainable competition".

Personal life

During the BBC coverage of free practice two of the Belgian Grand Prix in 2011, Whitmarsh explained that he was colourblind making it very hard for him to read the weather radar during races. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Portsmouth in 2009. Whitmarsh has two children.

gollark: OH POTATOSThe JSON body *encoded in a form thingy* has some sort of insane vaguely RPC-like thing going on.
gollark: ACCURSED
gollark: THIS IS ACCURSEDMY ROUTER'S ADMIN PANEL'S WEB FRONTEND SENDS JSON URLENCODED IN A FORM BODY
gollark: I would have to remove the line in ABR's code denying it.
gollark: ++delete tutorirriiral

References
  1. Jamie Doward (25 July 2015). "In Ainslie's hi-tech HQ, experts perfect a craft fit to bring America's Cup home". The Observer. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  2. Matt Majendie (5 June 2015). "From F1 to the open seas: Ex-McLaren boss plots America's Cup triumph". CNN.com. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  3. "Team Principal, McLaren Mercedes, Martin Whitmarsh". www.mclaren.com. McLaren. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  4. "People: Martin Whitmarsh". www.grandprix.com. The Motorsport Company. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  5. Morrison, Murdo (15 June 2004). "Payback time; Farnborough may lag Paris in air show rankings, but the backing of the US defence giants and three new sector-specific features could give this year's event an edge". Flight International. Reed Business Information. p. 36.
  6. "Dennis to quit as McLaren F1 boss". BBC Sport. 16 January 2009. p. 1. Retrieved 16 January 2009.
  7. Benson, Andrew (16 January 2014). "McLaren: Ron Dennis replaces Martin Whitmarsh as CEO in coup". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  8. "Dennis to make changes at McLaren after being appointed Group CEO". Autosport.com. 16 January 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  9. "Ex-team principal Martin Whitmarsh formally parts ways with McLaren". 26 August 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
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