Sportscar stalwart Rob Bell is retiring from racing to take up a management role within McLaren Automotive’s motorsport arm.
The winner of two Le Mans Series class titles and the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup will become sporting director as part of a management reshuffle in which McLaren Formula E boss Ian James will assume responsibility for the road car company’s GT and one-make racing activities.
Bell, 45, is hanging up his helmet after 13 seasons as a McLaren factory driver during which time he won the Blancpain title in 2016 driving a 650S GT3 fielded by the factory Garage 59 squad.
“I’m stepping down as a McLaren factory driver and definitely retiring from professional racing, though I’m not ruling out the odd one-off,” Bell told Autosport.
“I’m really happy with my decision: I’ve had some good times, enjoyed it a lot and had some decent success, so I’ve ticked a lot of boxes.
“I always said to myself that 45 would be a good age to stop, so long as I had something else to do.
“The stars have aligned at McLaren to allow it to happen the way I wanted.”
Bell revealed that “the race track will primarily be my office” and that one of his key roles will be liaising with McLaren’s customers in the GT3 and GT4 categories as well as the one-make Trophy series, which is expanding into North America next year.
“It is a big step-change for me and I know that there is a lot of hard work ahead,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to working with Ian and receiving his guidance.
“I’ve got to know him over the past three or four months and I have been really impressed.”
Bell cited the 2016 Blancpain title, won in partnership with Shane van Gisbergen and Come Ledogar, as the most significant achievement of his career.
“That was my biggest success because the series was so competitive,” he explained.
“But in terms of memories the fondest ones are probably from my time driving for Jim McWhirter.”
Bell. Ledogar and Van Gisbergen celebrating a win at Monza in 2016
Photo by: McLaren
Bell described racing McWhirter’s Ferrari 430 GTC for Virgo Motorsport and then the JMW team established by the car owner as a “real purple patch”.
He took back-to-back LMS GT2 titles in the car with Virgo in 2007 and ’08, winning six of 11 races across the two years and only finishing off the podium on the car’s solo retirement in two seasons.
There were a further two wins under the JMW Motorsport banner in ’09 when he and Ferrari factory driver Gianmaria Bruni missed out on the LMS title by a single point.
He switched to sportscars in 2005 after his single-seater career came to an end following a fifth-place finish with David Price Racing in the previous year’s Formula Renault V6 series.
Bell became McLaren’s second factory driver for 2012 – he was signed a few days after Alvaro Parente – and also twice raced a factory Aston Martin in GTE Pro at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
James will combine his role as boss of motorsport at McLaren Automotive with his managing directorship of the McLaren Electric Racing FE squad.
He takes over the responsibilities from Mick McDonagh, who is retiring from McLaren.
Malcolm Gerrish, who led development of the current Evo version of the McLaren 720S GT3 racer, has been promoted from chief engineer to technical operations director.
Ian James, Team Principal, NEOM McLaren Formula E Team
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
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