McLaren hit track trouble after Ron Dennis draws veil on dark episode

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/02/mclaren-ron-dennis-fernando-alonso-jenson-button

Version 0 of 1.

McLaren’s Ron Dennis wants one of the most notorious scandals in the history of Formula One, which almost resulted in his team being kicked out of the sport, consigned to the musty pages of history.

Dennis, McLaren’s chairman and chief executive, made his plea as he welcomed Fernando Alonso back to the team. Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were the McLaren drivers in 2007 when the team were fined $100m, a record for any sport, after a 780-page document containing confidential technical information about Ferrari’s car was found in the possession of McLaren’s chief designer, Mike Coughlan.

Dennis and Alonso had a difficult relationship. In November 2007 the Spaniard left McLaren after one season and returned to Renault for the 2008 campaign.

“It [the scandal] could be dissected in lots of ways but it is the past,” Dennis said. “The whole thing took on a momentum and was very controversial for the whole sport. It was heavily amplified and everyone got pretty bruised by it. But everyone has moved on. I am mellower, Fernando has matured and there are other people who were involved. To go back into it would be a waste of time. Actions speak louder than words and we need to get on with racing and enjoy the experience.”

Dennis, 67, who is the most successful team chief in the history of F1, added: “It is not so much pragmatic, as do we need to feel angst over this any more? Or do we want to get on with enjoying motor racing? One of the best things about Fernando is that he loves his motor racing. If you go back to Ayrton [Senna], he hated the politics and the controversy, even the controversy he sometimes caused. He retired two or three times behind the scenes because he was frustrated with things he didn’t like. Why should we keep going back to something that isn’t positive? We are looking for a positive way forward.”

Dennis denied that Alonso demanded No1 status in his return to McLaren. “He never asked for a single thing to be inserted into his contract,” he said.

McLaren are attempting to move on off the track but they have plenty of problems on it following their reunion with the engine suppliers Honda. On Monday Jenson Button completed only six laps in the MP4-30 and his lap time was 33 seconds slower than the fastest man, Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari. On Sunday, the first day of testing, Alonso, Button’s team-mate, also managed six laps.

Button said: “I had no expectations. I definitely didn’t think we would go out and pound around. Even the car that won the world championship had a problem second day in. It’s a very complex power unit. We have our head around it and understand the issue, so we’re hoping for much more productive day three and day four.”

In the morning Button did five laps. He did come out again in the afternoon but the engine still did not sound right and he returned to the pits after one lap.

Vettel, who topped the timings on the opening day, was once again the quickest driver in Monday morning’s run, stringing together a number of fast laps on his medium tyres and, when he returned to the track later in the morning, he cut almost a second off his best time.

It is track time not speed that is most important at this stage of the F1 pre-season and Mercedes were again mightily impressive here in his first run of the week.

Hamilton was a second and a half slower than Vettel but much more relevant were the 73 laps hammered out by the champion in the morning. He came out again in the afternoon, which was hampered by rain, and took his total laps for the day to 91, two more than Vettel and three more than Felipe Nasr in his Sauber.

Hamilton said: “I got in a good amount of laps. I got a good feel for the car. The car is the worst it will be this year – the balance wasn’t perfect because we weren’t working on set-up – so it could be better. We got good mileage and we should do tomorrow.”

The Red Bull car made its debut in disguise, with black and white squiggles covering the bodywork in an attempt to conceal the changes they have made for 2015.