McLaren has bought back the majority of Mercedes-Benz's stake in its Formula 1 team.
The German manufacturer owned 40 per cent 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 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 per cent that is still owned by Mercedes, but it's not an important or significant number," he was quoted as saying by Reuters.
McLaren Automotive chairman and former team boss Ron Dennis owns 15 per cent of the team, as does Saudi businessman Mansour Ojjeh, with a further 30 per cent belonging to Bahrain company Mumtalakat.
Whitmarsh was speaking today at the launch of McLaren's MP4-12C sportscar, 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 sportscars.
"Our message there was: 'We want to race with you [Ferrari]. Where are you going to go? Why don't we go together?'"
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