Jones: McLaren need to control drivers

Former world champion Alan Jones believes McLaren boss Ron Dennis needs to lay down the law to his two drivers if he is to prevent their rivalry hurting the team's world championship bid

In the wake of the Hungarian Grand Prix controversy, where Fernando Alonso was penalized for holding up Lewis Hamilton in the pits during qualifying, Jones is adamant that the intra-team rivalry needs sorting out.

Jones thinks that Dennis has to make it clear to both men just what is allowed and what is not allowed as they fight it out for the title.

"If you are operating a multi-million dollar operation and you're going for the world championship, then if you are the boss you are entitled to call the shots," Jones said in an interview with The Observer.

"Ron has got to get his drivers back into some sort of order. You can't just go on for the rest of the season with all this going on.

"You have these highly talented guys and, while they will want to do their own thing and not become puppets, there has to be some sort of arrangement. They might agree that there is no arrangement - if you know what I mean - but they have to sit down and establish a game plan. It's like cricket.

"The captain will instruct his guys to do something for the betterment of that team and for the end result, which is victory. That is not doing anything for the benefit of one individual; it's for the benefit of that team winning."

Jones thinks that Alonso's situation at McLaren has come as a surprise to the Spaniard, who had arrived at the team expecting to be a clear number one. And he admits he would have felt the same if it had happened to him.

"I think Alonso, quite rightly, thought he was going to go to McLaren and be the senior partner in the firm," continued Jones.

"Being a double world champion, he probably thought he should get a bit more attention than he feels he is getting. This young kid has come in and to all intents and purposes, blown him away - and Alonso doesn't like it. Fair enough. Neither would I.

"The first guy you've got to beat in F1 is your teammate. I'd be applying all sorts of tricks, psychological or otherwise. By doing what he did in the pit lane, Alonso might have taught Hamilton a bit of a lesson. Hamilton needs to remember that he is leading the championship and he might require Alonso's help later on.

"If I were Alonso, I'd go to Hamilton and say, "Right mate, all bets are off. Every man for himself. If you don't want to play the game, this is what we can do." Then I'd say: 'Mate, you're leading the championship. If you'd like me to bugger that up for you a bit more, you keep going...'"