McLaren has bought back the majority of Mercedes-Benz's stake in its Formula 1 team.
The German manufacturer owned 40 percent of McLaren's F1 operation prior to taking over Brawn GP. Mercedes denied at the time that the deal would mean the end of its relationship with McLaren, but admitted that the partnership, which is currently agreed to until the end of 2011, would change.
McLaren said back in November that it planned to buy back the shares from Mercedes and team boss Martin Whitmarsh said today that the McLaren Group has regained a significant portion of the stake.
"I think it is about 11 percent that is still owned by Mercedes, but it's not an important or significant number," he told the Reuters news agency.
Whitmarsh was speaking today at the launch of McLaren's MP4-12C supercar, which he hopes can compete against Ferraris in the GT racing world. He has spoken to Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo about future competition between the two in sports car racing.
"Our message there was: 'We want to race with you [Ferrari]. Where are you going to go? Why don't we go together?'"
McLaren Automotive chairman and former team boss Ron Dennis owns 15 percent of the F1 team, as does Saudi businessman Mansour Ojjeh, with an additional 30 percent belonging to Bahrain company Mumtalakat.