APRIL 3, 2009

McLaren sporting director suspended

Dave Ryan, McLaren's Sporting Director, has been suspended by the team following the Lewis Hamilton controversy in Melbourne.

The 54-year-old New Zealander has been with McLaren for 34 years, having joined the team as a mechanic when he arrived in London in 1974. In the years that followed he worked with Jochen Mass and Patrick Tambay and became chief mechanic after the old McLaren team was merged with Ron Dennis's Project 4.

He was chief mechanic through the successful years of the McLaren-TAG era and then spent a period as theMcLaren factory manager before becoming team manager in 1990.