After 43 years in Formula One, Ron Dennis decided to withdraw completely from the sport and concentrate on building McLaren's new sport cars, the BBC said on April 16.

Dennis (61) handed the full control of McLaren's F1 team to Martin Whitmarsh on January 16, the day when the team revealed this season's F1 car. Now he has decided to completely step down from the team's Formula One operations, he told a news conference.

He claimed that his decision had nothing to do with McLaren's problems after reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton was found guilty of misleading race stewards following the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was disqualified from the race and stripped of his points even though he publicly apologised for his actions, saying that he was ordered to mislead the stewards by the team's sporting director Dave Ryan. The latter was sacked because of this by Whitmarsh, but the damage was done and speculation surfaced that Hamilton would leave the team and sponsors withdrawing.

Dennis said that his departure had nothing to do with McLaren facing the sport's governing body, the FIA, on April 29, when it will answer charges of breaching the International Sporting Code. He insisted that the timing of his departure from F1 was "purely coincidental" and not linked to the team's upcoming FIA hearing, the BBC said.

However, Dennis said that his departure would be probably welcomed by FIA president Max Mosley and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, referring to his ongoing disputes with them over the years.

Now with Whitmarsh as his successor Denis will take the post of executive chairman of McLaren Automotive. He would control the group's project to develop a range of pure McLaren sports cars, with the launch date for the first model set for 2011, the BBC said.