S1 Ep18: Bruce McLaren Pt. III - Life after Death: Road to the P1
Past Gas
Donut Media
4.9 • 7.2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2020
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Bruce McLaren Motor Racing team is now without their founder and leader- what will they do next? In this episode we cover the aftermath of Bruce’s accident, the people that kept the company running, and the entrance of a new leader: Ron Dennis. We also reveal how McLaren teamed up with Marlboro cigarettes, and how that gave us one of the most iconic racing liveries of all time. We also dive into some of McLaren’s legendary inter-team rivalries, including James Hunt vs Niki Lauda, and Ayrton Senna vs. Alain Prost. Finally, we tackle Ron’s departure from the company, and where McLaren stands today.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody, my name is Nolan Sykes. I'm from Past Gas by Donut Media. We are an |
| 0:04.7 | automotive history show and this week we're talking about a guy named Phil Hill. |
| 0:09.6 | Phil Hill spent his youth dreaming of driving foreign cars who'd read British |
| 0:13.8 | race publications back to back. He grew to idolize racers like Juan Manuel Fongeo |
| 0:18.9 | and Alberto Escarri and cars like Maserade's, Ferraris and Triams. But for most of |
| 0:24.1 | his life it was just a dream. So how did the nervous son of a postmaster and |
| 0:28.6 | him composer become one of the most talented race car drivers of all time? |
| 0:32.2 | Why did you leave racing near the peak of his career? What unfortunate event led |
| 0:37.2 | him to winning a world championship? The down past gas? Part one of the story of Phil Hill |
| 0:42.5 | in the 1961 Formula One season. You can find past gas wherever you get your |
| 0:47.5 | podcasts, check it out. Past gas. |
| 0:59.0 | Ron Dennis was a company man since leaving Cooper in 1979 to work for the |
| 1:04.5 | McLaren Formula One team. Ron had a burning obsession with perfection and |
| 1:09.2 | winning. He was able to realize that vision by taking control of McLaren in 1981 |
| 1:15.0 | in a monumental run. Ron turned the team around taking a team with no wins in |
| 1:20.4 | between 1978 and 1980 to 10 drivers championships and seven |
| 1:26.0 | constructors championships within 28 years. Bruce McLaren would have been proud. |
| 1:31.0 | But on Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 McLaren group shareholders ended Ron Dennis's |
| 1:38.6 | tenure with the company. After a 35-year run this was not how Ron wanted things |
| 1:43.8 | to end. The company was his life and he understandably felt the board's |
| 1:48.7 | decision was completely unfair. Who else had as much sweat equity in McLaren as |
| 1:54.6 | Ron Dennis? Who else had devoted their entire adult life to the cause? No one. |
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