Ron Dennis says McLaren firmly on the road to recovery as '80s sponsor returns

A bullish Ron Dennis has declared that “McLaren are back” after announcing what he has described as the “first announcement of many” in returning 1980’s sponsor Segafredo Zanetti.

McLaren revealed at Monza on Saturday morning that the Italian coffee brand Segafredo’s logo would appear on their MP4-29s from this weekend to renew the relationship between the two parties which originally ran between 1984 and 1986.

Segafredo’s return marks McLaren’s second revival of a partnership from their ultra-successful 1980s title-winning era after they last year agreed a deal for former engine suppliers Honda to return in 2015.

And although the team’s on-track fortunes are yet to return to such glory days – they are without a win in almost two years and are currently in a battle with Force India for fifth in the Constructors’ Championship – Dennis, who returned to the helm of the Woking outfit in January, says things are coming together behind the scenes.

“This is the first announcement of many over the next few months,” the McLaren CEO told a gathering of journalists.

“McLaren is going to be back in every aspect of F1.

"We have been making systematic and very structured forward progress. All of the people who have been joining McLaren or were going to join are now integrated into the organisation."

Following the departure of Vodafone as title sponsor at the end of 2013, McLaren have yet to announce a replacement while neither of their current drivers, Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen, have yet been handed contract renewals for 2015 as the team continue to monitor the movements of some of the grid’s biggest names.

Despite the F1 team's on-track underperformance, the McLaren Group earlier this week announced a pre-tax profit of £18.8m in 2013 following a 7.5% increase in revenues to £268m.