Dennis also confirmed that Alonso was asked by the team to attend the WMSC meeting but refused to do so. (LAT Photo) » More Photos
A 115-page transcript released by the FIA today reveals all the action that went down during last week's World Motor Sport Council meeting, in which McLaren ended up fined $100m and excluded from this year's constructor's championship in the wake of the "Stepneygate" spy saga.
Arguably the most impressive portions of the transcript refer to the icy relationship between McLaren boss Ron Dennis and his driver, double world champion Fernando Alonso – who, despite having been asked by the team, did not attend the WMSC meeting like his teammate Lewis Hamilton. Not only was the duo "not on speaking terms" since the Hungarian GP incident, in which Alonso deliberately blocked Hamilton on pit lane during qualifying (this after the Briton refused to let the Spaniard by on the track as previously agreed by the team), it was also the Spaniard who first threatened to release information to the FIA regarding the exchange of e-mails between himself and tester Pedro de la Ross (the "new evidence" that brought about the second WMSC meeting – McLaren had been deemed innocent on another WMSC gathering on the previous month).
"We are not on speaking terms, but that does not matter," Dennis said during last Thursday's hearing. "We have not had any conversations since that point [Hungary].
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"The relationship between Fernando and myself is extremely cold. That is an understatement. In Fernando's mind, there is the firm belief that our policy, whereby each driver receives equal treatment, doe not properly reflect his status as World Champion. He bases this assertion on the fact that his experience and knowledge and what came to him from his former team is such that he should receive an advantage.
"In that discussion, he was extremely upset with what had taken place the previous day [at the Hungaroring], but nowhere nearly as upset as I was. He said things that he subsequently and fully retracted. Within the passage of material, he made a specific reference to e-mails from a McLaren engineer. When he made this statement, I said, 'Stop'. I went out, brought in [McLaren CEO] Martin Whitmarsh, and Fernando said everything again, in front of his manager [Luiz Abad].
Get the inside story of the people, science and history of Formula 1 each month in RACER. Tony Dodgins looks into the complex issues behind the McLaren/Ferrari spy scandal in our October issue, on sale now.
