Former Force India and McLaren figurehead Robert Fernley passes away

Former Force India senior manager Robert ‘Bob’ Fernley has passed away at the age of 70, his former team have confirmed.

Aston Martin, the team for whom Fernley worked in a previous guise as Force India, have confirmed Fernley passed away on Friday. The British manager and entrepreneur was 70 years old.

Fernley served for over a decade as the deputy team boss of the Force India team, working closely alongside Vijay Mallya as the Indian businessman’s representative on the ground as Mallya was frequently unable to leave the United Kingdom.

Bob Fernley moves from Force India to McLaren

Having put in stints in IndyCar and with the Ensign team during the 1980s, Fernley moved to work with Mallya at Force India in 2008. He became the face of Force India over the following 10 years.

Following on from the sale of Force India to Lawrence Stroll’s Racing Point consortium, Fernley left the organisation for whom he had worked for so many years, in order to head up McLaren’s IndyCar programme under CEO Zak Brown.

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Having overseen the ill-fated 2019 Indy 500 attempt with Fernando Alonso, Fernley was released from his McLaren contract and, in 2020, succeeded Stefano Domenicali as the head of the FIA’s single-seater commission.

He left this role in early 2022, with Giancarlo Minardi taking over in his stead.

Tributes are paid to the late Bob Fernley

“I am saddened to hear the news that Bob Fernley has passed away,” said Domenicali, who had left his former position in order to become F1 CEO.

“He was such an important part of Formula 1 and his love and passion for the sport will live forever. My thoughts are with his family and friends at this very sad time.”

His former team acknowledged his passing, saying: “Today we sadly learned of the passing of our friend and former colleague, Bob Fernley. The thoughts of all of us are with his family and friends at this time.”

Esteban Ocon, who raced for Fernley at Force India, paid tribute to his former boss, saying: “Sad to hear about the passing of Bob Fernley today. He was a great person and leader, and I was lucky enough to work and learn from him during my days at Force India. Sending my thoughts and condolences to his family and friends.”

PlanetF1.com would like to express our condolences to Robert Fernley’s family, friends, and colleagues.