McLaren to lose a third of revenues

Ron Dennis, boss of Formula One racing team McLaren, expects his team's revenue to fall by over a third – more than $147m- as the economic downturn bites. Last week, Honda shocked the motorsports industry when it announced it was withdrawing from Formula One because of the 'quickly deteriorating operating environment'.

And in an exclusive interview with The Observer, Dennis admitted that McLaren, one of the most successful – and biggest spending – teams in the sport, would also suffer.

'Our budgets come from the advertising budgets of the companies that support us, and inevitably advertising budgets get slashed or, at least are significantly trimmed in times of economic strife,' he said. 'We know we have to reduce our costs to cater for the inevitable downturn in income that is coming in 2010 and 2011.'

He added: 'We make no secret of the fact that we will try to do whatever it takes to be the best. It's an intensely competitive world but if the economics don't work then we will change them.'

Dennis, who was speaking before Honda had announced its withdrawal, said his team's turnover would fall by 37 per cent. 'We predict that our turnover will drop from $411m a year to as low as $257m a year,' he said. The Observer