To the casual, minimally interested race fan Fernando Alonso’s one year spent at McLaren was relatively successful. The Spaniard had, after all, only missed a third world title by a solitary point.
However, behind the scenes a sinister plot was unravelling and would soon bear explosive consequences. Fernando Alonso, fresh off his two world titles with Renault signed for McLaren sometime towards the end of the 2005 season. He arrived with the expectation of being treated as the team’s unequivocal first driver. He didn’t account for a young British up-start named Lewis Hamilton.
In Australia he finished ahead of Hamilton but the rookie stole the spotlight by finishing on the podium. It’s no surprise that Alonso is a poker player; after all, he is pretty good at spinning it in the media. For all intent and purpose as far as Fernando was concerned things could not have been going better at the McLaren team and with his new teammate. On balance he likely expected to be getting a considerable upper hand on the young Hamilton as they got into the meat of the season.
The next race in Malaysia was won by Alonso but Hamilton would strike back at the heart of the Spaniard by beating him to second place in his beloved Spanish grand prix. The first sign of tension in the team appeared in Monaco. The chequered flag was taken by Alonso while a particularly quick Hamilton appeared disappointed after the race for having to adhere to team orders.
But the cracks were there and they would be put on display for all to see in the North American stops on the calendar. Hamilton claims his first, impressive, grand prix victory in Canada and makes it two in a row in the United States. At a point in the Indianapolis Gp Alonso veers widely towards the pitwall in a clear message to the team to let him past his race-leading teammate. He later denied that the move had anything to do with the changing of position.
Unknown to most at this stage there was a story brewing that could turn the championship on its head. The next two race victories went to Kimi Raikkonen with Ron Dennis claiming that McLaren team had merely “flattered” Ferrari in France. At the Nurburgring Alonso came out on top of a wheel-banging fight with Felipe Massa for his third victory of the season. At the Hungarian grand prix qualifying session Alonso and his illustrious physio concocted a plan to “punish” Lewis Hamilton. He would spend just enough time in the pitbox to stop Hamilton from getting another crack at a flying lap. It worked and the Spaniard secured a short-lived pole position. It left team Principal Ron Dennis incensed as he marched up to the physio and yanked the comms from head.
It later emerged that during the lead up to the Hungarian GP Fernando Alonso had offered Ron Dennis the “opportunity” to re-establish him as the number one driver and to throw all of the team’s resources behind him. If not, he had information that he would share with the FIA president. The information would reveal that McLaren had been in possession of confidential Ferrari documents and had used it to their advantage. Not to be bullied Dennis contacted the FIA himself and after a lengthy investigation the McLaren team were fined $100 million and excluded from the Constructor’s championship. On appeal the fine would later be reduced to $50 million.
In China, there were rumours that an exceedingly angry Fernando Alonso was slamming doors off their hinges and having heated words with Ron Dennis. At this point in time most would have, and did, suspect that it established an irreparable amount of damage to the Alonso/Dennis relationship. By the end of the 2007 Brazilian grand prix neither McLaren had won the world championship and Fernando Alonso sped off to rejoin the Renault team apparently never again to darken the McLaren doorstep in his racing career.
He spent a relatively unsuccessful couple of season at Renault which was blighted by the crashgate saga of Nelson Piquet Jr. and the Singapore grand prix. Off he went to Ferrari with the belief that he would add to his world champion trophy cabinet. It wasn’t to be but the Spaniard’s racing reputation didn’t suffer any harm either. No joy at Ferrari and a few parting jibes later he once again finds himself as a McLaren driver with Ron Dennis in charge. Oh, how time changes Formula 1.
As many drivers and F1 personnel have attested to in the past Ron Dennis’ incessant need for control meant that he dictated every single aspect of the team. One example of it is that he requires all drivers’ hair to be neatly coiffed and to be clean-shaven.
With the official announcement of Fernando Alonso as a 2015 McLaren driver brings with it the speculation as to how much, if at all, the relationship between these two has been repaired; and how much of the decision was actually Dennis’ to make in capitalistic world of Formula 1. Because, as far as we know, Ron still doesn’t like beards.
