Jordan analyses: 'Where is McLaren now? They are nowhere near as good'

Dennis was McLaren's team boss for nearly 30 years. Under his leadership, championships were won by Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen and Lewis Hamilton. Dennis left the team in 2016 after McLaren went through a difficult few years. In the years that followed, McLaren slowly recovered somewhat, although the team has another particularly difficult start to 2023. Only in the third race did the team manage to win its first points, although McLaren was greatly helped in this by the large number of dropouts in the Australian Grand Prix.

'I bet they would love to have him back now'

"Ron was a perfectionist, wasn't he?" reflects Jordan, who competed against Dennis and McLaren in the 1990s with his own team. "He just had everything planned. He wanted Senna, he wanted Prost. To be fair, we all laughed and joked because of how clinical he is. But I bet they wish they had him back, because where is McLaren now? They're nowhere near where they were."

"You can say what you like, Ron Dennis was just fantastically dedicated," Jordan continued the analysis of his former rival. "He was committed to his team. It’s very important to endear yourself to that team because you need that team to do the most extraordinary things possible to give you just that little added bit of extra."