David James Ryan (born 12 May 1954 in
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
) is the former sporting director of the
McLaren Formula One team and former racing director of the
Manor Formula One team. He spent 35 years with McLaren until he left in April 2009 and set up VonRyan Racing to compete in
GT racing
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing that uses sports cars with two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built sports prototypes, which are the highest level in sports car racing; or grand tourers (GT cars) ba ...
.
Career
A former
speedway
Speedway may refer to:
Racing Race tracks
*Daytona International Speedway, a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida.
*Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta.
*Indianapolis Motor Spe ...
racer, Ryan left New Zealand for the UK in his late teens and joined McLaren as a mechanic. He worked on the
McLaren M23
The McLaren M23 was a Formula One racing car designed by Gordon Coppuck, with input from John Barnard, and built by the McLaren team. It was a development of the McLaren M16 Indianapolis 500 car. A Ford Cosworth DFV engine was used, which was p ...
of
Jochen Mass
Jochen Richard Mass (; 30 September 1946 – 4 May 2025) was a German racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from to . Mass won the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix with McLaren. In endurance racing, Mass won the 24 Hours of Le Ma ...
and with
James Hunt
James Simon Wallis Hunt (29 August 1947 – 15 June 1993) was a British racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from to . Nicknamed "the Shunt", Hunt won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with McLaren, and wo ...
when he won the World Championship in 1976. After nearly a decade as a mechanic, Ryan was appointed to the role of Chief Mechanic for the team, before taking over the role of factory team manager. In 1990 he took on more responsibility as team manager looking after the race and test team activities on track and at the
factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...
in
Woking
Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...
. Then 18 years later, he was appointed as sporting director with more responsibilities, however he was suspended prior to the
2009 Malaysian Grand Prix
The 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix (formally the 2009 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 5 April 2009 at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang, Malaysia. It was the second race of the 2009 FIA Formula ...
after an incident concerning a yellow flag situation during the
2009 Australian Grand Prix
The 2009 Australian Grand Prix (formally the 2009 Formula 1 ING Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 29 March 2009 at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia. It was the first race of the 2009 Formula On ...
. During his time with the team he worked with the likes of Formula One champions
Ayrton Senna
Ayrton Senna da Silva (; 21 March 1960 – 1 May 1994) was a Brazilian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Senna won three Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles with McLaren, and—at the time of his death—held ...
,
Alain Prost
Alain Marie Pascal Prost (; born 24 February 1955) is a French former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Nicknamed "the Professor", Prost won four Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles and†...
,
Niki Lauda
Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda (22 February 1949 – 20 May 2019) was an Austrian racing driver, motorsport executive and aviation entrepreneur, who competed in Formula One from to and from to . Lauda won three Formula One World Drivers' Champ ...
,
Mika Häkkinen
Mika Pauli Häkkinen (; born 28 September 1968) is a Finnish former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Nicknamed "the Flying Finn", Häkkinen won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in and with M ...
and
Lewis Hamilton
Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari. Hamilton has won a joint-record seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles—tied with M ...
and the team won 151 races, 12 Drivers' Championships and eight Constructors' Championships.
In 2009 he left the team and set up his own outfit – VonRyan Racing. In 2015, racing two McLaren 650GTs, the team won three races in the
Blancpain Endurance and
British GT
The British GT Championship is a sports car racing series based predominantly in the United Kingdom. The series was originally created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports G ...
series.
In November 2015, Ryan was appointed to the position of Racing Director of the
Manor F1 Team which eventually folded in January 2017. He was present at the
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix () is a Formula One motor racing event. The first race took place on 1 November 2009, held at the Hermann Tilke-designed Yas Marina Circuit on Yas Island, near Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The ...
, the final event of the season, working with the team.
He is now Racing Director of
W Series, the new single-seater championship for female drivers only.
References
External links
Ryan's profile on the McLaren website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Dave
1954 births
Living people
Formula One managers
McLaren people
New Zealand motorsport people