THE WHEELS have fallen off Manchester United this season — and Sir Jim Ratcliffe likens them to a Formula One car.
Red Devils’ co-owner Ratcliffe, whose Ineos group is the principal partner of the Mercedes F1 team, said getting the club up to speed is like building a race car.
But the Old Trafford side have been off track under head coach Ruben Amorim, suffering three Premier League defeats already this season — as well as the humiliation of being dumped out of the League Cup by fourth-tier Grimsby Town.
United fans voiced concerns that the team are going round in circles under the current manager but they flicked through the gears to earn a 2-0 home victory against Sunderland on Saturday.
Ratcliffe was not in attendance but was present for their previous win against Chelsea last month.
The 72-year-old billionaire was also in the directors’ box for the Manchester derby defeat at City, who have finished above United in the Premier League for the past 12 seasons.
Ratcliffe told The Business podcast: “It’s like a Formula One car — the better car you can build, the quicker you go
“The better your squad, the better your football should be.
“So a lot of what we have done in the first year is spend an awful lot of time putting the club on a sustainable, healthy footing.”
Ineos acquired a third of Mercedes in December 2020 and the team won eight consecutive Constructors’ Championships up until 2021.
However, Mercedes have been overtaken by Red Bull and McLaren in recent years and lost seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari this year.
United became Ratcliffe’s primary sporting venture after Ineos split with the New Zealand’s rugby union team and Olympic sailor Sir Ben Ainslie.
United have slashed their workforce by more than a third since Ratcliffe became a minority investor in February 2024.
Around 450 staff members lost their jobs during two rounds of redundancies, while Ineos have completely overhauled the structure at the club.
And under Ratcliffe United have hired a new chief executive, a new sporting director, a new technical director and a new manager.
Dan Ashworth lasted only five months as the club’s inaugural sporting director and Jason Wilcox was promoted from technical director to director of football.
'NEEDED TO CHANGE'
Wilcox, who has largely remained in the shadows, said at an Old Trafford Q&A last month: “I just pray that we get the opportunity to turn it around.”
Former City academy director Wilcox also added that “the whole structure of Manchester United needed to change”.
Ratcliffe took a dim view of former chief executive Richard Arnold, dismissively referring to him as “a rugby man”.
Football director John Murtough resigned just months into the Ineos era and the club has slashed their once-bloated scouting network, with around ten full-time scouts now employed.
Ratcliffe’s Ineos group assumed control of United’s football operations as part of an agreement with the Glazer family — who have owned the club since 2005.
Of the six Glazer siblings, Joel has been the most involved in the running of the Old Trafford outfit but he has not been to the stadium to watch a game since April 2019.
His brother Avram attended as recently as this season’s opening Premier League defeat to Arsenal.
Joel still signs off on major decisions and Ratcliffe flew to New York last week, fuelling speculation that United could be about to part ways with Amorim.
Winning against Sunderland has quietened speculation around the Portuguese boss, who was pictured dining with his wife in Manchester on Monday.
United’s next game is away to Liverpool and they have not won successive league games in a single season since May 2024.
'REALLY PASSIONATE'
Ratcliffe has defended the Glazers since before he successfully negotiated that minority stake in the club last year.
He said: “They get a bad rap but they are really nice people — and they are really passionate about the club.
“We’re local and they’re the other side of the pond. That’s a long way away to try and manage a football club as big as complex as Manchester United. We’re here with feet on the ground.”
United posted record revenues of £666.5million last season despite the absence of Champions League football — and this term for only the second time in 36 years they are not in any Uefa competition.
Ratcliffe bragged: “If you look at our results for last year we have the highest revenues ever. Profitability, the second highest ever.
“We’re not seeing all the benefits of the restructuring that we’ve done in this set of results, and we were not in the Champions League. Those numbers will get better.
“Manchester United will become the most profitable football club in the world, in my view.
“And from that will stem, I hope, a long-term, sustainable, high level of football.”