Dave Ryan has participated in motorsport at all levels, racing in speedway events, working as a mechanic and overseeing the day to day running of a team as management. He spent much of his career at McLaren, but left after an incident where Lewis Hamilton was caught lying to the stewards. At the last race of the 2015 season, Ryan joined the Manor team as Racing Director and remained for 2016 as well.

Biography

Ryan’s early motorsport experiences involved speedway racing in New Zealand, but he left the country to move to the UK and join McLaren F1 as a mechanic. He was part of the team working on championship winning cars in 1976, and earned his stripes, eventually being promoted to chief mechanic and then team manager back at the factory.

In the early 1990s, Ryan’s responsibilities’ were expanded to include the racing activity as well and in 2008 he was appointed Sporting Director. During the 2009 season, however, in an early race at Malaysia, Ryan was involved in an incident with Lewis Hamilton. The British driver was summoned to see the stewards and later apologised for lying to them, allegedly under the instruction of Ryan. He was suspended from the team and left the sport for a few years.

In the meantime, he set up his own racing squad to participate in British GT, retaining his association with McLaren. At the end of 2015, Ryan was hired by the Manor F1 Team as part of their reorganisation. He became Racing Director for the final round in Abu Dhabi, and for a full season in 2016 but the team folded ahead of the 2017 season.