Dennis: 'Mellow' approach key to new Alonso/McLaren F1 relationship
McLaren boss Ron Dennis says a mellowing of his character and greater maturity from Fernando Alonso has allowed them to work together in Formula 1 again after their 2007 fall-out
Alonso has returned to McLaren for 2015, eight years after his previous stint with the team was curtailed early following a series of spats with team-mate Lewis Hamilton and amid the 'spygate' affair in which McLaren was heavily punished for accessing information from Ferrari.
A McLaren/Alonso reunion was long thought impossible given the severity of events in 2007, but Dennis says it now seems like a different world given changes in both their personalities and F1.
"The whole thing took on a momentum, and whatever was happening within the team, it was at a time when the environment was a very controversial environment for the sport as a whole and great emphasis was placed on many things that happened," said Dennis.
"We were perhaps the reciprocant of a climate that F1 had at the time; actually what took place was relatively trivial in reality, but heavily amplified - and everyone got pretty bruised by it.
"Everyone has moved on and certainly I am mellower. I think Fernando is more mature."
Team status disputes between Alonso and Hamilton had been part of the 2007 discord, but Dennis said Alonso had made no stipulations regarding his 2015 McLaren team-mate Jenson Button.
"I can promise you one thing with Fernando - he never even asked [for number one status]. In fact the opposite. Total opposite," he said.
"He said 'equality, I accept equality'. He has never asked for a single thing to be inserted in the contract."
McLaren engineering director Matt Morris added that Alonso had so far been an entirely positive influence.
"Fernando has been absolutely itching to get in the car for the last few months," said Morris.
"It has been a frustrating few days for him but he is happy, he is going to push us on as a team.
"His motivation levels when he is in the garage, when he is in the office, or in the simulator is massively high, and that knocks on to everybody else really, it pushes everybody else on."
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